Mass Effect: Prime Mover
by ThreeCatsinaBarrel
Summary: After the battle, comes the war. But Shepard and her crew will no longer be alone as they seek a way to fight the Reapers. After a strange young woman contacts races from other galaxies in the universe, Shepard realises their war is only the final battle.
1. Prologue: Christened By Fire

Hi readers, hope you enjoy. Remember R n R after reading if it's not too much trouble.

I do not own the Mass Effect universe; the entire Mass Effect universe belongs to the very talented people at Bioware.

I will be putting OC into this story but will make notes when I do.

Mass Effect: Prime Mover

Prologue: Christened By Fire

The abandoned office block she and her companion dog had been sleeping in had been targeted by an arsonist and Bear's barking had been the only thing that had woken the ten year old from her deep slumber. It took her sleep addled mind all of two seconds to register the smell of smoke, her ears to hear the roaring of fire a worryingly short distance away and her eyes to see its beautiful, but terrifying red and yellow hue glow around the area where she and Bear had been sleeping. Fear sent her survival instincts into overdrive as she grabbed for her ragged backpack, collected her bedding and set her ten year old legs running for the nearest exit. Bear was jogging beside her, both them panting from the heat and unable to get any clean air as the fire threw up black smoke and heated dust. She was choking, Bear was choking, but they knew that once they were out of the building they would breathe fresh air again; that was enough encouragement to keep their legs going.

The exit was blocked by a burning pile of rubbish; office equipment, tables and chairs collected from the nearby rooms, which was strange because Kaylei had made sure all of the nearby exits were clear. She had heard about the arsonist and that they targeted buildings where homeless people slept, they made sure that what exits they found were blocked so no one could get out. The authorities said that this psycho was targeting the homeless in an attempt to rid the world of poverty in a messed up dream to achieve the perfect world. Kaylei was the only person using this building so she had hoped to go unnoticed by the arsonist; obviously not.

She and Bear quickly doubled back along the hallway they had run down, she knew of a small room that was used by a cleaner when the building was in use, it had its own exit outside, that door could possibly have gone by unnoticed by the attacker as it was hard to find if you didn't explore hard. The young girl and her companion quickened their pace as the ceiling began to sag and creak, beginning to weaken from the fire which had spread up to the floors above them.

Reaching the Cleaner's Room Kaylei yanked open the door and saw that she had been right, it was clear and the door swung open showing the night blanketed street beyond, but before she could follow Teddy Bear outside a loud cracking noise above her was all the warning she got before Kaylei saw the ceiling falling onto her.

This was it. This was the end of her short, hard life. Ten years old and about to die; Bear with her, the huge, black, stupid mongrel never did know when to leave her alone.

A metal support beam in the ceiling came loose and Kaylei knew that she had no time to get out of the way as the strange beam of dark metal, something she had never seen before, almost a dark blackish purple, with lights running along its entire length, looking like robotic insides than a simple metal beam, fell towards her bringing burning ceiling tiles and other debris with it.

The fire became stronger.

The beam landed painfully on her, crushing the air from her lungs and bruising ribs, possibly breaking a couple; she cried out and a second later she felt Bear's rough tongue licking her face. Kaylei tried lifting the metal, which now looked like any normal beam; it's strange lights nowhere in sight, but it was burning hot and turning red from the heat of the fire in some places along its length. She only burnt her hands trying to lift it and fate was being cruel for she could still see the outside through the open exit from the Cleaner's Room, all the while the smoke was getting thicker and the fire getting closer, its heat making her sweat. Frightened tears were streaming down her face as realization dawned on her mind she could very well die right here, trapped under this beam, the outside so tantalizingly close she could feel the cool breeze on her face, but still, that stupid mongrel of a dog just barked and bit at her clothing, hard enough to make it painful on her shoulder as she tried again to lift the heavy beam. "Bear, stop it," Kaylei said, trying to push the huge dog and get back to getting free. The dog didn't listen and continued pulling her left shoulder painfully, his teeth now breaking her skin and drawing blood.

So desperate was he to get his young friend outside and away from danger.

"Bear stop! You're hurting me." Somewhere in her mind she laughed. _'Yeah, you're going to die and all you can think about is getting comfy_._'_ Bear began pulling her; she heard the many layers of her shirts tearing and the canine teeth in her shoulder deepening. "Bear stop!" Somewhere close by she heard another part of the ceiling collapse.

As Bear tugged her, Kaylei felt her weight shifting, her stretched body became thinner and slowly Bear pulled her roughly from under the beam and out the open door, not letting her try her own legs until he had dragged her several feet away from the Cleaner's exit.

Finally Bear let go and Kaylei stood, tripping from the pain in her legs after being trapped under the beam and burning tiles before finding her feet and limping to the other side of the street. She collapsed to the concrete of the path, shivering from the trauma and the cold air that seeped into her torn clothes. Tears were still running down her face and she could feel the blood chilling from the bite mark to her shoulder, not helping her feel any warmer. Bear approached with his tail between his legs, not knowing what his young master would do being hurt, his pack instincts knowing injured pack mates could be unpredictable.

Kaylei pulled him close and cried into his shaggy black fur, not caring about the method he used to save her, even as the blood began soaking into her shirts attracting more cold. It was as the sirens of the fire engines began to fill the air that she pulled away from her lifelong friend and stroked his thick scruff of fur. "It looks like we have to find ourselves some new digs, eh?"

Bear, of course, said nothing and just panted in her face.

_Shepard__..._ Kaylei could have sworn she heard someone one shouting, even over the roaring fire engines' sirens. It was strange; she was sure the sirens of the fire services didn't sound off like that. Quick rhythmic beats; perhaps the government had changed them.

_Shepard!_ That shouting again, why were they calling her Shepard? She didn't have a family name; you needed a family for a family name.

Then there was a sudden feeling in her chest, Bear was restless, he could tell something was wrong.

She felt... she wasn't sure what she felt, but she didn't like, she knew it shouldn't be happening to her. From her seated position on the concrete she fell backwards, her head hitting the cold floor beneath her.

Floor? She was on a London street, not a floor. And those sirens, what were those sirens; they weren't the normal long notes and then the loud horns. The new quick notes had become uneven and erratic. What was going on?

Bear was whimpering and barking, but not even his monstrously loud barks could drown the shouting in her ears.

_"Shepard! Come on, open your eyes!"_ Maybe she had died in that fire, or more likely that beam had done more damage than just a few injured ribs. Maybe this was the last desperate attempt of a dying brain to keep itself alive.

Something in her chest stopped at that moment, she was certain, she could feel it. The fire engine sirens began to cry a long, ominous tone.

_"Doctor! She's gone into cardiac arrest!"_

_"Kaylei, no! Keep fighting it you stubborn bitch!"_

_"That's enough Lieutenant! Prepare the De-Fib now!" _Kaylei couldn't understand how was she back here at the burning warehouse at ten years old? Wasn't she fighting Saren... who was Saren? She felt her breathing stop and panic manifested in her mind. Bear was still barking as he stood over her and raised his massive front paws over her chest. _"Clear!"_ Kaylei cried out as something exploded in her chest when Bear's paws came down. Movement was in her chest, but stopped again. Tears were still running down her face.

_"We need you here Commander. There are still Reapers out there, you promised Ashley!"_ Ashley... Ashley Williams. Kaylei could only just remember. But remember what, she was only ten and had been stuck on Earth all her life. She was sure she had met no Ashley on Earth.

_"Kaylei! You have to come back! Please!"_ Kaidan, she hadn't met him either, but she knew him. Confusion set in as the voices she heard became slowly clearer, but still ethereal, something she couldn't make sense of or comprehend. _"You never back away from anything in your life! You always knew what to do! You always led us through, how will we stop the Reapers without that judgement!"_

_"Will someone please get Lieutenant Alenko strapped into a stretcher!?"_ Chakwas and Kaidan, why was it all so familiar. Kaylei had never heard of the names that were filtering through her mind... but she had, she knew she had. Chakwas, Kaidan, Tali, Wrex, Liara, Garrus, Joker and everyone else that served her on the Normandy.

But at this moment, in her dying mind, she was slowly forgetting, the memories slipping through her fingers like grains of fine sand. She briefly remembered the conversation with Garrus after Dr Heart shot himself; before it slipped from her mind and faded.

"No... No, I'll not forget! I don't want to forget!" Kaylei shouted out to the London street that surrounded her the red glow of the office fire bathing everything in red and yellow light. Bear was rearing up again...

_"Clear."_ and her chest exploded again as he landed on her chest. The London street was slowly dissolving into a bright light that reached out to touch everything, seemed to emanate from everything before it was engulfed by it. The fire engine sirens once again blaring their strange call, now back in rhythm, faded from her ears. Finally it was just Bear and her, covered in white light, and her tears slowed as her old companion gave her a final lick on the bridge of her nose and then dissolved from her vision into the light.

Her body exploded in pain, every nerve ending screaming but her own vocal cords wouldn't obey her body to scream with it, she felt her eyes opening and outlines appeared, the light slowly receding behind outlines of figures looming above her. She was tired, she was in a world of pain, someone had their knee pressing down on her hand and she couldn't speak or move or do anything to get them off.

"Doctor Chakwas, she's back."

"Shepard? Stay with me Commander." It was Doctor Chakwas. The pain was numbing her head, and Kaylei couldn't stop her eyes rolling in their sockets, she couldn't get a focus onto anything. Realising what was happening Chakwas leaned further towards her, trying to keep her awake. "Kaylei, stay with me." Chakwas said firmly, gripping the Commander's shoulders.

'_Sorry Doctor...'_ The light faded further behind the Doctor's dark silhouette and all Shepard could do was fall into blissful, unfeeling, unconsciousness.


	2. Ch One: Lamentation of the Crew

Hi again, chapter one now finished. I plan to back over all of the chapters once the story is finished to sort out any spelling mistakes or sentence mishaps.

I try not to put song lyrics into a story if I can help it but I couldn't think of any other way to do so, I hope it doesn't put any off.

Anyway, I know that in the game you can't give Commander Shepard heterochromia eyes but I this Shepard is based more on what I wanted Shepard to look like rather than actually staying to the looks you can give a female Shepard in the game.

Well, I hope you enjoy, I know its starting out rather slow but things will pick up pace, I swear.

Remember RnR after reading.

Chapter One: Lamentations of the Crew

It had been several weeks since they had brought Shepard back to the Normandy and Doctor Chakwas had been trying everything to get the Commander to wake up. Although she was sure that the coma was ony a result of the pain Shepard had been in, she could not discount the high probability that Kaylei's head injury may have caused more damage than she had initially thought. The longer the Spectre stayed in comatose the more Chakwas worried, that in turn, effected the crew.

The Normandy's Mess had never been so quiet, no one wanted to be near the Med-bay where their Commander lay broken and meek, probably dying, her injuries had been extensive and even if she did survive there was a big chance that she would be brain damaged. No one wanted to think of the Commander like that.

Repairs to the Citadel were well underway and were almost complete despite only a few weeks passing, the only real damage that had been done to the citadel was from the impact with Soveriegn. The Keepers and Citadel races had immediately begun to clear the metal and broken rubble, they had also restored most of the systems and power to all of the ward arms and the tower and were now setting about the repairs to the bodywork and small areas of damage done to the huge frame. It had been a huge wake-up call for the many races that called the Citadel home. They had thought the Citadel was indestructable, although the damage wasn't very extensive they're preconception of indestrutibility now lay in ruined tatters. Garrus couldn't help but comment to himself that it was the same with the Commander.

She was a strong woman, a brilliant strategist, a supreme soldier and held an honourability he had never seen before in any human, though he had to admit he didn't know a lot of humans. He had been one of the first to see her after Doctor Chakwas allowed people back into the Med-bay a couple of days after they had brought the Commander on board, that had been two weeks ago.

He had not been back to see her since.

Commander Shepard was a strong, resolute warrior, a compassionate but hard leader and most surprizingly of all to the turian, a voracious and loyal friend. To see her half naked so as not to irritate her wounds and the numerous tubes, wires and machines pumping all kinds of fluids into her and monitoring her, the huge slashes on her chest and stomach recieved from the claws of Saren's husk, along with the puncture wound to her right shoulder from the husk's projectiles.

She was a pathetic image of the strong human that Garrus had come to see her as.

The turian sighed as his stomach clenched again, what humans termed as a rumbling, signalling he was hungry but he had no appetite, he just wanted to continue working. _'Have to get the Normandy ready for when Shepard gets better.'_ he remembered Engineer Adams words, he often did. His mandables spreading slightly in a turian grin. He was glad that at least someone could think positive and Garrus eventually found himself telling others the exact same thing despite having seen the meek creature lying in the Med-bay, Garrus could still find himself talking about the Commander in the present tense.

His good mood soured a bit when his stomach clenched again and he knew he would have to get something to eat, but that meant going to the Mess. Alliance Millitary protocols were very clear that servicemen were to eat only in designated areas, the Mess was the only designated place on the Normandy. The turian turned off the terminal showing the mako's systems and headed for the elevator draging his toes, he felt tired and worn.

He was glad that the elevator was so slow but was dispondant when it finally came to the second level where the Normandy's mess was located, along with Shepard's quarters and the Med-bay and that was why many on the Normandy would have liked to have eaten elsewhere, as if them eating so close to where Shepard was laying in some way disrespected her. Garrus felt his mandable droop as he walked to the synthesizer and typed in his code for turian kertha soup, he was rewarded with a simple bowl of the thick soup and took a seat at the table in the center of the mess. It was only once he had sat down he realised he had taken a seat in front of the Med-bay door, he paused with his fork inches away from his meal.

Every time he seemed to take this seat, it was almost instinctive. Garrus shook himself from his thoughts and took a mouthful of his soup, the warm meal dancing on his tastebuds before he swallowed. He had heard that synthezied food was usually 'nothing to write home about' as a human term went, but perhaps the kertha soup was an exception, he quite liked it. In fact, all of the food on the turian menu came out quite well, perhaps it was just the turian food that came out alright, Garrus hadn't tried any of the other races menus as he was allergic to many. As he ate the turian officer once again felt his mandables spread as he remembered a conversation with the Commander regarding the very matter.

_~~~~~~~~~~~~Shepard and Garrus~~~~~~~~~~~~_

_Garrus sat in his chair at the Mess Hall table as his thoughts rampaged through his head, his mandables tight against his face and eyes hard as he tried to siphon through what Shepard had told him after Dr. Saleon shot himself. Her words played continuously in his ears as if someone had pressed play and repeat on his old music player back home on the Wepker colony._

_"_You don't know how someone is going to react, you can't control that, but you can control how you react." _she had said the words with such conviction in her voice. She knew what she was talking about, she had been in enough situations to know that. He had read the details of Elyisium. His brow furrowed and he crossed his arms, wondering why he ever thought, or even came up with the notion that Shepard was anything like his predejuce of a human._

_He barated himself almost mercilessly and growled low in his throat._

_"You young fool," he muttered under his breath. Quoting his father's favourite line, but Garrus' held none of the fatherly undertones or light-hearted scolding. Garrus' was cruel and cold, completely befitting his wrong pre-judgement of the Commander as 'just another human'. She was so much more than human._

_"Not interupting anything, am I?" Garrus jumped and his mandables flared in shock as the Commander's voice sounded close to his side. "Whoa, sorry Garrus, didn't mean to startle you. I think you left a dent in the cieling."_

_"Commander, I'm sorry you just caught me by surprise," the turian explained "I was just sorting out my thoughts."_

_"Want a penny for any of them?" Shepard asked._

_"Pardon?"_

_"An old Earth saying that goes 'A penny for your thoughts'. It's said to someone who looks deep in thought or looks troubled as a way to say 'would you like to talk about your worries?'. A penny is a unit of currency on Earth and when used in this saying means that your thoughts are worth something to me." Kaylei explained in detail to the turian as she walked over to the synthesizer. "Basically I want to know if you'd like to talk about what's got you so uptight. You know my open door policy."_

_"Oh, thank you Commander, but no. I think this is something I've got to figure out with myself." Garrus said, relaxing in his seat again._

_"Very well, but you know where I am if you need to talk." Shepard said turning to the food processor. "Would you like something?"_

_"No thank you Shepard, I don't think I could handle another helping of njare pie or marlka."_

_"Why not try something from the human menu, I would recommend the sheppard's pie if it didn't taste like crap." the Commander said taking her tray, holding a bowl with some kind of thick red orangey substance in it and a couple of large crackers, and sat down opporsite the C-Sec officer._

_"I'm allergic to pretty much every other race's menu, and those two dishes are the only options on the turian menu." Garrus explained, obviously distressed by his eating predicament. The turian was breifly aware that Shepard's face was showing an emotion close to empathy as she dipped one of the crackers into the red substance and ate._

_"Heck, that's a situation to be in when you're stuck on a ship. I'll see what I can do Garrus, just hold out for a few more days." After reassuring Garrus that it wasn't a problem and telling him she wouldn't listen to his arguements, even if it was, she finished her meal and the two returned to their work._

_Two days later, Garrus would be able to chose a turian dish from fifty options on the turian menu._

_~~~~~~~~~~~~Shepard and Garrus~~~~~~~~~~~~_

Garrus was drawn out of his memory as his fork hit the bottom of an empty bowl, he wouldn't be eating this if it wasn't for the Commander, then again, no one would be eating right now if it wasn't for the Commander.

For some reason that hit him hard, and he couldn't help the slight shaking of his left mandable.

Garrus left his empty bowl and fork in their seperate cleaning compartments at the synthesizer and bee-lined for the elevator.

Trying not to look back over his shoulder at the Med-bay door.

With all of her injuries healling well Tali threw herself into her work, she had nothing better to do anyway so why not spend the time productively? She presed on with circuitry of the galactic map in the Command Center, cutting away some burnt out wires and clearing circuit boards of loose connectors. The intracacies of the shouldering and keeping her mind on placing the right wires at the right connectors was helping her to keep her mind off the terriying battle between the Commander and Saren's husk. A battle she and Lieutenant Alenko bore witness to.

It was Navigator Pressly who had told her that the galactic map, as well as the surrounding computers, kept shorting out or losing power and since Adams had told him all about the young quarian's expertise he had approached her, asking her to take a look.

Tali had agreed immediately. She had spent so much time working on the engines and monitoring the drive core that she had got somewhat sick of the same routine, working in the Command Center would give her a much needed change.

At least that was what she had hoped for.

In reality, crouching down where the Commander would give out her orders to go to a certain planet or system somewhere in the galaxy only reminded the young quarian about what had happened to the woman she looked up to. Tali had been to see the Commander many times and each was as hard on the young woman as the first time. Tali continued souldering at the wires, making sure not to use to much but enough to keep the wires connected to the circuit board she had replaced.

She took the excuse to focus on something other than the Commander and thought about how busy the engineer team had been recently. Truthfully, Tali had known her services were going to be in huge demand once repairs started on the many ships of the fleets that had brought down Sovereign, perhaps even the Citadel if she was lucky, but the Normandy had been taking up her whole time and the ship hadn't even recieved any major damage. A few burnt-out wire and motherboards but that was expected.

However, while everything else was getting repaired in leaps, something was going on with the Normandy, she was sure, but they were only minor annoyances and Adams had put it down to the Normandy's systems cooling down. That was the point of a prototype ship afterall, they just had to iron out all the bugs.

Tali had intially agreed with the officer but all the disturbances seemed to pop up in strange areas, one day it would be the communication systems, another day it would be the food synthesizers, one worrying time it was even the med-bay bed Shepard had been laying on; no one had seen Tali move or work so fast as to when that bed started acting up. The quarian had remarked that nothing looked damaged, the wires looked fine, the cuircuits still all connected and seeming to work fine when she would later test them. These strange anomalies weren't very frequent, but it worried Tali about the Med-bay and she made sure to check all the Med-bay systems whenever she got the chance as often as she could.

Just to make sure and Dr. Chakwas didn't mind either.

Tali finished with the galatic map and stood, that should be just about be fixed and ready for use.

"Okay, that should do it Navigator Pressly," the quarian told the aging human who was stood at his normal place "try it now, Sir." The Navigator opperated his terminal and the screen flickered to life.

"Great, at last! I was worried for a minute. What was wrong, Miss Rayya?" Pressly asked as the quarian gathered her tools and made down the steps to reach his level.

"Well I couldn't see anything severely wrong with the wiring or the motherboards to the computers so I just replaced the ones that looked a bit worn or were a bit loose. I've been doing that a lot lately, I'm a bit worried about that, I'm sure its more than just bugs."

"I'm afraid I don't know much about wires I'm afriad, you should talk to Adams if you're that concerned."

"I have, he assures me its just the systems in a prototype ship but, can there really be so many unexplained anomolies in just one frigate?" seeing that the alien did seem very concerned, Pressly tried to reassure her that Adams knew what he was talking about and it seemed to work, for when they finished their conversation Tali was much brighter, though it was hard to tell with her tinted visor.

The young mechanic began to make her way to the sleeper pods as she was now officially off duty until tomorrow, but Tali knew that now her working muscles had warmed up she would get restless after a quick sleep and would be looking around the crew to see if they had any more mechanical problems.

Reaching the Normandy's second level the tired quarian made her way to the back where the sleeper pods were situated, paying no attention to the elevator as it made its way down to the engineering level.

Tali was passing the Commander's quarters when she heard something coming from within, it sounded like singing. Going back, Tali followed her ears into the Commander's quarters where her eyes fell apon the Commander's strange Old Earth musical device. A small, slim machine with a screen and a black circle with tiny writings on it. Kaylei had told her it was called an iPod. It was resting in the specially designed speaker on the table beside the Commander's terminal computer.

The speaker was on full volume and Tali's mood downturned as she listened to the little speakers play to the Commander's empty room, she remarked to herself how much the small machine sounded like a loving pet calling for its master. Tali walked over the iPod and its speaker and was about to try and turn it off when the track changed and the words caught her ears.

_Leave and let me go_

_You're not meant for me, I know_

_Carry on, carry on_

_And I'll stay strong_

For quarians, songs weren't just a form of relaxation or escape from the everyday, they could also carry personal messages. She knew that the other races probably thought the same but those messages were often interperated as a large meaning about an event or certain situations. Quarian musicians wrote songs for individual people that they knew, there were very few songs done by quarians that thought about a bigger picture, more often they were about certain people in the musician's life. As Tali listened to the song the iPod was now playing she thought she had perhaps stumbled onto one of the few 'personal' songs written by another race.

She found herself frozen to the spot while she listened as another singer joined.

_**Leave and let me go**_

_**I will think of you, I know**_

_**But carry on, carry on**_

_**And I'll stay strong**_

The two singers joined togerther and Tali found herself thinking back to one of many conversations with Shepard where she had explained that she would return to the Migrant Fleet once Saren had been dealt with.

Then Tali thought about the prone figure in the Med-bay, badly wounded and still showing no signs of coming out of the deep coma she was in. She remembered how Shepard had been the only person to really trust her when she first came to the Normandy and had made sure the young quarian understood that if she felt threatened by anyone in the crew she would help her... keep her safe. She had come to see Shepard as a rolemodel. If the Commander had been a captain in the Floatilla, Tali had no misconception that she would be asking to join her crew. The precise skills needed to guide her ship and crew, a matriarchal figure that everyone could trust and talk to, that was the perfect captain in the Tali's eyes.

But then of course, the cold and terrible thoughts of Shepard never getting up, never being able to keep her safe... never being able to keep anyone safe.

_Someone else will keep you warm from now on_

_Someone else will keep you safe from the storm_

_But I'll be with you wherever you go_

_So you will never be alone_

_I'm going where the wind blows_

_Going where the lost ones go_

_I will be with you_

_**I'm losing the love I found**_

_**Crying without a sound**_

_**Where have you gone?**_

_I will be with you_

_**You were my fool for love**_

_**Sent me from high above**_

_**You were the one**_

_I will be with you_

_I'm going where the wind blows_

_Going where the lost ones go_

The more she listened, the more spooked Tali got and the more she thought about what might happen if Shepard died. What would happen with the Reapers. She knew that the Citadel Council had finally accepted the truth but without Shepard, Tali was frightened, in her mind they wouldn't win without Shepard. Tali had promised Shepard long ago that she would do whatever she could do to help the Commander stop the Reapers, the quarian knew everyone else on the Normandy had taken that same vow. But how? Without Shepard, without inspiration how could they defeat the Reapers. Tali felt like she was going to explode, she could feel her dark eyes tickling from tears and all she could do was stand at the Commander's desk and listen to this song.

_Leave and let me go_

_Don't look back, just let me know_

_Carry on, carry on_

_You must stay strong_

That was last verse she could bring herself to listen to, it was like the song was answering her fears and it scared her. She didn't turn off the speakers, she just fled, the tears starting to run down her cheeks but hidden by her helmet and tinted visor.

Tali reached the sleeper pod and pressed button on the first she reached. The hissing indication that the pod was steaming itself and then dried in seconds to ensure a clean enviroment for the next occupant. Once the pod unlocked, Tali got in and waited for the pod to lock again before removing her helmet and wiping her tears with her hands, holding her head once she had.

She was shaking all over and she couldn't remember why she had let that song get to her like this, but she couldn't help going back over the lyrics she had heard. Tali hadn't cried like this since her mother passed away. Then, she had been comforted by her father, the last time he had shown any kind of close affection to her and she had been grateful, he had been hurting too.

She did not have her father on the Normandy.

Tali started to calm down, wiping her hands over her face again she rubbed at more tears and stopped one tear's tickly path down the side of her nose before it reached the slits that made her nostrils. The quarian remembered when the Commander had made her feel better when she had been missing the Fleet. Tali had told Shepard she would be with her until the end, when the galaxy was safe again, she may have thought that it would only be until Saren was stopped but she didn't realise that his goal was to help out a huge fleet of Reapers, she would just have to tell the Floatilla she was going to be back home a lot later than expected. It was then Tali felt better, she had promised Shepard she wouldn't stop until the Migrant Fleet was safe, since the Reapers would wipe across the galaxy erasing every organic sentient being from existence she had to keep going, whether Shepard lived or not. Shepard was her strength, in a way the Commander had just helped her realise that this was a quarian problem, that the Floatilla wouldn't just be able to fight the Reapers off or steer clear of them.

Tali knew what she had to do, but it would have to wait, she was drained, physically and mentally, the song still fresh in her mind. "_'You must stay strong'_. Fine, I will I promise, but you've got to fight too Kaylei."

With her tears dry the quarian was able to find rest at last and once she had awoken she went to see Joker at the Normandy's helm.

She had to contact with the Floatilla.

With all the heavy lifting done in Embassies the large krogan had made his way back to the Normandy, sometimes stopping to lend a bit of muscle where it was needed. Since the Normandy hadn't got badly damaged in the fight against Sovereign and therefore had no need for heavy plate metals brought in and lifted, Wrex had decided to see if he was needed on the Citadel. His help had been greatly appreciated from the get go, there weren't many individuals capable of carrying half a ton of wreakage, work materials or tools about on the great space station.

Half of his work had been demolition, strangely enough, with some areas blocked by rubble krogans were in demand to help break through these areas and carry off the rubble. With his biotics Wrex was proving quite skilled getting on with clearing out of the concrete and broken steel. It was a far cry from his usual 'work' but it was proving an effective way to stay in shape while the Normandy was ground awaiting Shepard to wake from her coma.

Wrex leaned back on the support where he was usaully found and stretched the great muscles in his legs, tendons popping and stretching pleasantly. Wrex had certainly done his fair share of clean-up today, he found it quite ironic that the Embassies and diplomatic areas had been the worst hit in the attack from Sovereign and there had been rubble and collasped infrastructure everywhere. There had even been teams sent into the lake to break up the collasped bridge which led from the Embassy quarters to the area where the Consort was; this, Wrex also found quite ironic.

Wrex watched as the elevator made its slow decent down to the engineering level and made a silent bet with himself who it could be. Since the turian officer was always at the mako apart from when he was eating, sleeping or defecating he bet it was Garrus. He had won himself an extra helping of synthesized food from the Mess, when he could be bothered to walk to the food station, as the turian stepped out of the elevator and returned to the mako looking throughly downcast. _'Must be thinking about Shepard' _Wrex thought, although this he didn't bet himself, it wasn't a fair bet. Everyone was thinking about Shepard.

He would be a liar if he said he hadn't been... shocked... at the state of the Commander when she was brought back from the Citadel.

The krogan shifted his weight as he reached for a small holder on his belt and took hold of a small object from one of the holder bags and brought it back round to his face. It was small and slim and at the same time felt brittle but hardy. Wrex settled against the bulkhead again as he remembered the situation in which he had recieved this object.

_~~~~~~~~~~~~Wrex, Shepard and the Medical crew~~~~~~~~~~~~_

_The entire crew of the Normandy were running around like a hungry varrens looking for a carcass and all Wrex wanted was something to eat. He hadn't eaten for a while now but getting to the Mess Hall was proving differcult trying to step over and walk around the injured that had gathered in the large Engineering level of the Normandy without stepping on anyone. The ship was being used as a makeshift hospital for the civilians and C-Sec officers caught on the Presidium and inside Citadel Security complex. Many of them were in a bad way, shot at by geth or trapped under rubble or even fallen from balconys or into the lake. Most of them were lying down, the few that were sitting up were often the ones suffering from only superficial injuries._

_It was as the krogan reached the elevator and stepped inside that he heard the Medical Evac, a fast transport used for transporting the injured, hence its name he guessed. He saw that two stretchers were being brought in and that Chakwas, the Normandy's head doctor, was with them at the lead and seemed quite hectic. When the human doctor saw Wrex was about to operate the elevator since he thought they would drop off the injured in Engineering she barked out an order to him with such ferocity in her voice that it stopped his hand,_

_"Hold the elevator Wrex!" the krogan did and watched with some fascination as Chakwas gaves orders that the gurney that had been following the main group could be 'seen to' later and should be left in Engineering for the time being. The patient on the second gurney was Lietenant Alenko and Wrex looked to the patient on the first gurney as the medical team, Chakwas and the patient on the gurney charged into the elevator with Wrex still in it._

_Wrex kept his mouth shut when he was able to get a good look at the patient even as Chakwas and her team tried to keep them stabalised while the elevator slowly made its way to the second level and the Med-bay. Tucking himself tightly into a corner Wrex watched._

_The patient was a human, he could tell by the colour of the blood that was covering the unfortunate female, the krogan guessed it was female because she was half naked and he could see breasts, he was not an expert in human anatomy but he had picked up a few pointers in the last couple of months travelling with them. The gruesome amount of blood was pouring from huge slashes on the female's torso and stomach and he could just make out some kind of bulet hole entry on the right shoulder. Her breathing wasn't good and she seemed to be going in and out of conciousness. In other words, she was not in a good way._

_He couldn't get a good look at her because of the medical crew and the blood, but he was able to get brief glimpses of her face and a cut which looked remarkably like a scar the Commander had under her right eye, but this... thing, couldn't be the Commander. She was probably still on the Citadel, helping the surviving C-Sec officers fight off the rest of the Geth and rescuing survivors. Wrex couldn't even think Shepard could look anything like the bloody mess Chakwas and her team were tending to now._

_Unfortunately, when the 'bloody mess' opened her eyes, Wrex didn't have to think. It was right in front of him._

_The Commander's unusual two-tone coloured eyes locked onto him as she regained some level of conciousness. The doctors worked to keep her awake, trying to get her to look at them so she had something to focus, but she was focused on the huge reptile staring right back at her. The Commander held out her left arm to the krogan and offered him her fist, which was clutching something grey and thin. The doctors were too busy with Shepard to notice that she was holding her arm as such._

_"W... Wre... x," the Commander's voice was a shadow of the voice Wrex was used to and didn't sound anything like her, but he stepped forward, some of the doctors moving out the way so Shepard could see him._

_She opened her palm and lifted it to Wrex, the grey item wasn't anything he had seen before but he took it, it looked fragile and only just fit in his three-digited hand._

_It was a turian mandable. "... All that wa...s left of... Saren head..." with her hand empty Shepard lost conciousness and her arm fell to her side, allowing the doctors to crowd her again as the elevator finally reached the second floor and wheel her away to the Med-bay._

_Wrex was left shocked, an almost alien feeling to him, and an emotion that Shepard was quite adept at drawing out of him even as she lay broken and bloodied on a gurney by the looks of it as well. He looked at the mandable lying in his hand and noticed the dead implants that Saren had been indoctrinated with. Tiny wires sticking out from the joint that would have been connected to his skull. Saren's head, well kind of, the mandable was all that was left, but Wrex was finally holding a piece of proof that Saren was gone. Had finally been punished for using the Genophage cure as a weapon that had forced Shepard to destroy the formula on Virmire, punished for using his people as slaves._

_Commander Shepard had ensured that turian bastard had got what he deserved._

_The krogan placed the trophy into a holder on his belt and stepped out of the elevator, continuing on his journey to the food station in the Mess Hall._

_~~~~~~~~~~~~Wrex, Shepard and the Medical Team~~~~~~~~~~~~_

The mandable had gone a slightly more pale colour in the past few weeks but since it was mostly bone and implants there was no chance of it rotting, the skin had been burnt off somehow, probably during the battle between the Commander and the rouge turian spectre. He couldn't be sure because Tali and Kaidan were keeping quiet about the battle.

It must have been some fight to keep the Commander on her back, the Krogan understood that, but the memory of the fight seemed to distress them.

Wrex was glad that things were slowly getting back to normal on the Normandy he no longer had to be careful where he was putting his feet since the injured had been transported to hospitals back on the Citadel and with the Normandy's repairs almost done less and less of the crew were charging about from here to there. The battlemaster returned the mandable back to its holder on his belt and walked to the elevator, he was hungry, and in regards to paying back Shepard for what she had given him, he knew what he had to do.

It was easy for Dr. T'Soni to forget the world around her, all she had to do was find something that grabbed her interest, which made her think hard and she would even go as far as to forget her own name at times. Something her mother had found quite endearing when checking up on her during her studies. And while the many Prothean Data Disks they had found on their travels across the galaxy were successful in getting her attention, they were also stressing the shard of the Amathe Goddess out of her.

If her intial research into Prothean language was anything to go on than the most advance race ever to exist in the known galaxy had a language system based around little more than about five letters and a speech pattern as simple as the social calls of a pod of naed dolphins.

The scientist's foot began to tap as a sign of her growing frustration and she could feel the usual tingling in the grooves at the back of her neck start, signalling she needed to calm down. Liara sighed and turned off her computer, the light from the screen disappearing and casting the young maiden in a yellow hue from her nearby lamp. She caught the clock underneath it and was only slightly surprised when she read ten o' clock, in human time she had been at her computer for twelve hours ever since she had finished a short duty to help Dr. Chakwas check on Shepard's condition and ensure all of the drips and various monitors were working properly. Ever since an unexplainable loss of power to the Med-bay bed the Commander had been lying on the head Alliance doctor had been checking the systems and whenever Tali could spare time the quarian went though a detailed check. Luckily the Commander was just comatose and was still breathing for herself but the machines had been monitoring her heartrate and delivering timed, measured doses of painkiller and anti-inflamatory medicine so the doctors had been determined to get the machines working again.

Liara remembered back to that slightly frightening time and how quick Tali had got the Med-bay bed back in power. The quarian had since been back about twenty times to check the systems, a devotion that Liara knew Kathrine Chakwas was grateful for. It had scared the head doctor something terrible and the loss of power was still unexplained. The asari maiden got up from her chair, stretching her tired legs and stiff back before taking a peek out into the med-bay to look at the form of the Commander.

Maybe she was awake now? Perhaps disorientated not knowing where she was and waiting for someone to come along.

Shepard was still in the same position she had been in for the past two weeks. But beside her prone form sat Lieutenant Alenko, he had fallen asleep with his head and arms rested by Shepard's side, his left arm was still heavily bandaged allowing a massive cut to heal and he still limped from terrible bruising on his left leg. Liara knew she had no idea what the Lieutenant was going through it wasn't her partner in Shepard's straits, and looking at Kaidan's sadness, she hoped she never experienced it.

However, Liara did feel something watching the female human she had felt such affection for in the awful condition she was in now. Kaylei's previously healthy, peach skin had gone pale from her lack of proper nourishment and no natural light. Liara's heart was wrenching in her chest and tears began to collect in her eyes as she watched Kaidan stirr from his sleep, unaware the asari was watching, and took her hand gently in his bandaged one. Liara retreated into the office seeing that the two needed to be alone. She was not a doctor of medicine but she knew that Shepard would only come back for Alenko and no one else. She returned to her computer and continued trying to sort out the information on the Prothean language.

Lieutenant Alenko had spent most of his time in the Med-bay, not only because that was where Shepard was but because he was getting through his own injuries. A piece of Soveriegn's shrapnel had sliced his arm up bad when the impact of the Sovereign limb sent him and Tali to the ground where they had taken cover under some rubble but it was only superficial and the impact with the ground had bruised his left leg as well, causing him to limp everywhere and he hated limping, hated being in pain, and he hated that Kaylei wasn't with him. He spent most of his nights in the Med-bay sleeping on one of the beds beside the one Kaylei lay apon, her eyes always closed.

"How's the Commander? Any change?" Joker asked from the helm beside Kaidan who was help the pilot check the controls.

"No, nothing yet, Joker."

"I'm sure she won't leave you, Alenko." the pilot said after a pause "She's not one to just up and leave her crew."

"She might not have the choice in her kind of situation." Kaidan said rubbing his aching leg. "What about you Joker, anything you got to have a conversation about?"

"No, and the only thing the rest of the crew has been talking about is..."

"Commander Shepard." Kaidan finished for him. The pilot nodded. They were quiet again but Lieutenant Alenko was paying attention to the time on the watch Joker had at the helm, in fifteen minutes he would be off duty and would be free for the remainder of the day, which meant he had the remainder of the day caring for Shepard.

"I'll cover if you want to go early Lieutenant, it's only ten minutes."

"I couldn't just up and leave."

"Why would you just up and leave, I thought you needed to get some things ready to help the Commander and Chakwas needs them a very specific time." Joker explained, looking at Kaidan from the corner of his right eye. "Hadn't you better get the stuff ready?" Kaidan grinned as he got to his legs being careful about the amount of weight he placed onto his tender left leg.

"Thanks for reminding Joker."

"No trouble, just take care of her, okay Alenko?" the L2 biotic nodded and limped his way down to the Command Center, where he'd be able to reach the second level via a flight of stairs. The tight bandages on his arm was itchy and his hand felt clammy, it wouldn't be too long before he'd have to have it changed, but that wasn't until at least another two days. The dark haired sentinel was able to reach the second level and made his way to Kaylei's quarters, where he would collect some of the Commander's personal things and then make his way to her side in the Med-bay. Stepping into her quarters he couldn't help himself thinking back to the night before planetfall on Ilos. But that was before the attack on the Citadel, before Kaylei fell into this danm coma. He looked around the darkly lit room as he stepped further in, noticing that Kaylei's absolutely ancient iPod was in its speaker beside her terminal computer. His brow creased as he walked towards the small machine and plucked it from its holder in the speaker. 'Strange, I thought I left it there.' Kaidan told himself as he placed the slim object in front of the speaker in the same manner Kaylei did. He was sure no one else had come into her quarters and he thought she wouldn't put it on just before Ilos, but he left it and turned towards Kaylei's bed. Before he bent down to pull out some storage draws from underneath he took time to look at the huge collection of photographs the Commander had taped to the bulkhead beside her bed.

They showed all kinds of events in Kaylei's life. She told him how, as a child on the streets she had come across an old style digital camera and had since taken pictures of everywhere she went and the people she met. His eyes first fell on a picture which showed a huge, shaggy furred, black dog that had befriended the Commander while she was a young child living rough, Kaylei had told him that she had called him Teddy Bear because he allowed her to sleep on top of him at night, though she used the name Bear more often because the size of the dog detered attacks on the young girl. Another picture showed a young Shepard, perhaps eleven, standing beside Bear and this pictue showed how large the dog was. 'Bear really was quite an apt name for him." Kaidan thought. His shoulders easily came just past the eleven year old Shepard's waist and since he was side on to the camera in this photo the sentinel could see that the dog was easily as long as young Shepard was tall, each of his four paws about the size of a small plate or a large saucer and long, shaggy black fur. His eyes travelled to other photographs and there were some of great landscapes from England to France to Germany all the way to the United States and Africa. Shepard hadn't followed the normallity for a homeless person, she had travelled a lot, always on the move. She and Bear had been more like gypsies or nomads and the more Kaidan thought about it the more it made sense that Shepard would be a traveller. It fit her personallity for some reason.

There were more pictures showing other people she had met on those travels around the globe, and there were often many pictures of the same families growing up year after year after year as Shepard continued to travel. A families in France, and he guessed Germany and what he thought looked like a families in Brasil, Spain, even a white family which had posed for her camera with Bear in a savannah landscape. It made sense that she knew all these families he guessed, she was quite fluent in many Earth languages.

Another series of photos also caught his attention. These he could tell were from Elysium, in sveral in could see the ruins of the great Communictions Tower, a landmark at the time, stood broken in the background of many of the photos. All of these pictures were taken after the Alliances forces had come to repel the pirates, he knew this because Shepard had told him, she had been too busy repelling the pirate attacks on the ground to take photos before. Several of these pictures showed groups of civilians partying after the Alliance forces arrived and some were of soldiers joining in the festivities. But they weren't the pictures he was interested in, he had seen similar on the old news vids and newspaper cuttings. What had got his eye were a series of photographs that showed Shepard, fresh and patched up from battle holding a young turian girl, some showed an adult male turian with the younger one that Alenko assumed were her father. Kaylei had explained that the young turian girl was named Pare Jarethe and that at the time of the Eylisium Blitz her parents were traders and had docked on the planet for repairs to their ship and to trade goods when the pirates hit. The turian traders and crew to the ship were seperated and Shepard had led the young daughter as well as the other turian survivors to the main settlement where she had been helping the colonists fend off the attacks.

Kaylei and Pare had remained close because of their experiences and the Commander had told him that Pare was now attending a training achedemy to become a soldier, inspired by her human hero. Kaylei and the young turian still wrote to eachother and Kaylei was even quite good at speaking in turian. Years of talking to Pare and writing to her in turian had taught the Commander the same way she had learnt all of the Earth languages she knew. Breaking himself from his thoughts he pulled a draw from under the Commander's bed and collected her hair brush and left her quarters after turning off the lamp on her table.

When he entered the Med-bay Dr. Chakwas looked up from her computer and smiled at him. Instinctively watching his limp as he came forward and took a seat at Shepard's bed.

"Has there ben anything Doc?"

"No, Lieutenant, none at all." the Doctor said "I'll take my break now then, Dr. T'Soni is in the back if you need help okay."

"Thanks again for this Chakwas, it means a lot." the Lieutenant said as the doctor past him.

"No trouble Lieutenant, I'll be back later."

Once she left, Kaidan gently proped Kaylei up using her pillows and gently pulled the brush through her hair, removing all th tangles from her dark brown locks. Her eyes remained closed all throughout but Kaidan liked to think he was helping in some way, making sure she was as comfortable as possible if she woke up. It took him little less than an hour to make sure he had all the tangle out and used the excuse to stay close to her. He couldn't hug her properly, what with the huge great gashes on her front. He sat back on his chair and rested his head on his arms next to her side and rubbed her fore head against the soft but pale skin of her arm, which was covered in scratches from being buried in rubble. He rested his head for what felt like a good few minutes, thinking he heard a door woosh open but not hearing anyone enter the Med-bay he kept his head down for some more time.

When he lifted his eyes they were red and his cheeks and the bandage on his arm were tear stained, he had to get some proper rest tonight, he'd have to slep in one of the pods, but that meant leaving Kaylei. He sighed, and stood up leaning over his lover he kissed her forehead and gently tucked his hands under her sides and then manuvered them around and up to her shoulder blades, propping himself with his elbows. He was covering her half naked form with his torso but was not pressing down on her injuries, this way he could kept a level of intimacy with Kaylei, gently stroking her back and kissing her face, making sure that he wasn't disturbing the mask over her mouth and nose giving her a constant supply of fresh oxygen instead of the recycled air in the Normandy. Kaidan rested his lips on her forehead for a second, a lone tear running down his cheek as he took in the scent of her hair which was slightly greasy.

Kaidan felt hands touching his sides and thought that perhaps either Liara or Chakwas was making sre he was alright and that he wasn't putting any strain on the Commander. He was confused when those tantative hands turned into arms circling his waist and trying to pull him down. He heard Kaylei taking a gasp of air and he slowly lifted his head to look at Kaylei's face.

Her eyes fluttered opened revealing her heterochromia eyes to him for the first time in days, one pale blue eye and one green eye stared up at him as he felt what could only be her hands gripping at his shirt. They just stared at each other, Kaidan hardly breathing. Something in his head telling him he was asleep somewhere and he was dreaming, but her grip was getting harder and she slowly smiled up at him.

"Ahhhh... Kaidan." came a small voice from Kaylei's throat.

It was the most beautiful sound he had ever heard in his entire life.


	3. Ch Two: Always Is

Hello from a snow covered Britain, finally this chapter is up and things are well underway with the plot now.

On a note, please be aware that I will be going through all my chapters to sort out spelling errors and plot mistakes, but I won't be starting these anytime soon. I'll let you know when I start.

Well enjoy! Don't forget to review.

Chapter Two: Always Is

Liara started up her terminal again after preparing herself some leatu tea to help calm her down, a few sips would allow the computer to load its functions. The herbal tea was the one little luxiury the prothean expert allowed herself, it was quite expensive, but it was worth every credit. She swirled the lavender coloured brew in her cup and took a deep breath through her nose, sending the tea's scent to the receptiors in her nostrils, sighing in appreciation as she slowly felt her worries abate and her frustrations with that Prothean text come to an end. The honey she now used to sweeten the tea had been a suggestion by the Commander, and one that Liara felt made a huge difference. The asari sugar she had been using before had been too heavy for the light tea and had taken from its soothing properties, the honey was much lighter and you were able to taste the difference in it. Liara leaned back in her seat as she started lifting the brim of the cup to her lips, anticipating the sweet taste, but was stopped by her name being called from the Med-bay. "Liara! Liara, come quick!" It was the Leiutenant, and he sounded very excited, but scared at the same time. Even though she was still learning the intricacies of human emotions she had learnt long ago that if anyone calls for you, no matter what race, than there is a reason. She got up from her chair still holding her cup and quickly headed for the door seperating her makeshift office to the Med-bay and she stood in the doorway once it slid open for her.

Kaidan was leant over the Commander's body and was resting his elbows on the mattress beneath her; it was a moving sentiment that Kaidan had started doing ever since his arm started to be only lightly bandaged. The impressive human biotic was still cradling Kaylei's head as he turned slowly to look at Liara.

"Lieutenant Alenko, what's wrong? Has..."

"Liara, get Doctor Chakwas, quickly!" Kaidan interupted, casting the young asari into confusion. Kaylei had been in a coma for some time so Liara at first didn't make the connection that maybe Kaylei had finally awoken from her ordeal.

"... Liara?" the third voice was barely audible, and sounded weak. It took the asari maiden all of three seconds to see Shepard's trademark two-tone eyes looking at her from the gentle embrace Kaidan had her in. Liara stared wide eyed, went visibly pale, and her tea cup was sent shattering to the floor as she ran to the Mess hall to find Doctor Chakwas.

Kaylei's head was spinning and she still wasn't fully aware of where she was or why she felt so weak. She knew that she had not been able to hold Kaidan for a long time so when she realised he was holding her she wasn't going to let him get away. She had been aware of him calling for someone, and that had allowed her to see Liara. Kaylei hoped the maiden asari was alright, she had looked very pale. After seeing the Commander the asari had run off at speed but that left her alone for a while with Kaidan who was telling her to keep her eyes open for him. Her arms moved further up along his sides and tried to pull him down to her, but he seemed determined to stay propped on his elbows. It was frustrating her, but at least being near him was enough to calm her ire, that didn't stop her from grasping at his clothing and continuing to try through.

"Im not lying on top you, Kaylei." Kaidan explained as he felt her try again to pull him down to her. "You're injured remember?" Her tugging stopped, and she looked up at him with confusion all over her face.

"Injured? What... happened?" the Commander asked, still feeling very weak and now that she was startingto get more aware of her body she could feel a strange tightness on her chest and stomach, and her head felt like it was trying to explode, but she refused to let go of him to find out what was happening with her head.

Ashley had told her to never let go of him.

The Med-bay door opened and Shepard lazily turned her head to see Liara had returned with Doctor Chakwas. The older woman staring at her with obvious shock in her eyes. Chakwas came over to the Commander and gently pried Kaylei's arms from Kaidan's sides much to the Commander's displeasure, but she had no more strength to grip to Kaidan's clothing or voice her frustration.

"I'm sorry, Commander, but I need to check you over." she heard Chakwas say, seemingly knowing what the injured leader was thinking. Kaylei relented to the doctor's voice, calming down and setting her arms to her sides on what she now realised was a bed in the Med-bay. With her senses returning she could now feel sharp pains all over her body and a terrible dull ache from the seperate areas of tightness on her torso.

Kaylei looked down as Chakwas reached for something in the medical stores over the Med-bed and realised that the tightness she had been feeling were actually huge slashes that had been tended to with stitches and generous amounts of medigel. The one on her chest extended from under her left collar bone to the top of the curve of her right breast and the second slash began from her left side under her chest and curled round to her stomach stopping over her groin. They both seemed to have come from large claws or something serated as small areas of skin had been torn away from the edges of the wounds. Chakwas had obviously used the gash on her stomach to do surgery as this had a draining line sticking out from between areas of stitching and for the places where the skin had been torn away, the copious amount of medigel on them would help to encourage skin growth, hopwfully minimilising scarring. Take into account the multitude of smaller injuries, internal injuries, bruising, scarpes, burns, bullet holes and no doubt broken bones and Kaylei was surprised she hadn't gone into a coma. The pain and dull aches were hinting that once she had regained her head completely and when the painkillers began to wear off then she was going to be in a whole new world of pain. "You look better than when you came in Shepard, believe me."

That didn't sound good, 'when you came in' meant that Shepard had been asleep longer than what she realised, perhaps she had slipped into a coma, it would certainly explain a few things. For now, she couldn't be bothered to ask questions, too weak and tired to really give a damn, so she laid her head back against the pillows behind her.

Now free of Kaylei's grip, Kaidan moved to stand beside the asari maiden and both watched as the doctor throughly checked the prone woman, listening to her heart and her lungs trying to gauge if the pain of her broken ribs were causing any negative impact on her breathing now that she could feel it.

"Kaidan what happened?" came Liara's voice to his side. "When did she wake up?"

"I swear Liara, just a second before I started calling you." Kaidan explained "She just woke up."

"I can't believe she's awake, it was starting to feel like we'd have to let her go." Eyes went back on the Commander and Chakwas, who was now feeling around Kaylei's head checking the large cut which extended into her hairline on her right temple left by a heavy impact. "Should we tell the others?"

"I guess we should, but not now, I think she should rest for a while." Kaidan told the asari, though he knew it seemed a bit cold making the others wait to hear Shepard was out of her coma, but he knew that Chakwas would not appreciate having the whole crew of the Normandy trying to fit itself into the small Med-bay and he wanted her to himself for a little while longer too. The doctor finnally finished her examination and explained to Shepard the extent of her injuries at the same time Kaidan returned to the Commander's side as Liara took the seat Kaidan had been using previously.

"... broken ribs, ruptured spleen, hence all of the internal bleeding, internal bruizing, dislocated shoulders, concussion, of course from head injuries, a punctured lung, a torn artery, high possiblity of trauma to the brain, though I'll have to do some tests..."

"I'm... beat up," Shepard interupted the doctor "I get it."

"You're more than beat up, Commander. You had us worried, and I don't just mean the medical team. You've got a lot of loyal supporters on this ship." The Commander's eyes widend as if she had just remembered something and she weakly turned her head around to look at where she was, pulling her oxygen mask from her face so that it didn't hamper her movement.

"Why am I in the Med-bay?" Kaylei asked, sounding very confused. Concern was quick to weave its way across Chakwas' face and the two squad biotics were just as quick to join the Doctor's worry. "I was... in my quarters, listening to the 'Pod trying to pick a track for... a track for... what was I picking a track for?" Kaylei asked herself, momentarily blocking out the figures who were around her and not seeing Doctor Chakwas reaching for some equipment. "... ... I made her cry."

"Made who cry, Kaylei?" Kaidan asked, reaching to touch Kaylei's face to try break her thoughts.

"I don't... I don't know."

"Lieutenant? Doctor T'Soni? I have to ask you to leave please, I'll let you know when you can come see her again." Chakwas said, her voice telling them they better do as she said or else. Naturally, Kaidan was the most reluctant to leave, he had Kaylei back and now he was being forced away from her. He heard the Med-bay doors open and several members of Chakwas' medical team came in, their eyes widening when they saw the Commander was awake. It was Liara who gently pulled the Lieutenant through the door after the medical team entered but his eyes never left the woman he was leaving behind in the hands of the doctors and nurses.

"Shepard was very confused, let Chakwas and her team tend to her Kaidan. She'll be okay." Liara told the dark haired Luietenant once they were outside the Med-bay and the door locked.

"She's awake now."

"I'm hoping it just because she's confused, and not something else, you saw that injury to her head, Liara." The asari notably shuddered at the remembrance of the sight that had greeted the medical team when they had taken off the Commander's smashed Collossus helmet, there had been so much blood pouring from the Commander's temple that it pooled in the corners of her eyes like tears.

"I'd... prefer not to remember such," Liara confessed. Kaidan realised that both of them were drained from the events of only a few minutes ago and Kaidan was ravenous from hunger, he wasn't sure about asari since they were natural biotics, but human biotics needed a good few hearty meals to fuel their talents.

And he was starting to feel a headache coming on.

"I have a plan," he suddenly said, bringing the scientist from her troubling thoughts of dark ruby red liquid "we'll have something to eat than we jump into sleeper pods and sleep 'til morning, Chakwas should have finished whatever tests she needs to do and we'll be refreshed to see Kaylei. I'm sure she won't appreciate having two tired biotics nodding off on her shoulders."

"I can go for several weeks without sleep, but the rest will do me good and help the night go quicker." Liara reasoned, more to herself than to Kaidan. "I could also do with a meal as well." She followed the Lieutenant to the food syntheziser where she ordered a meal and talked with him, once they had finished they took to the sleeper pods and allowed the machines to send them into a dreamless sleep.

Chakwas stayed with the Commander when the tests were complete, the scans and various questions she had asked had shown the doctor that this confusion wasn't as bad as she had first thought when the Spetre started going through her memories. Shepard just needed a bit of time to sift through her head, she had been in a coma for several weeks so she was going to be confused as to where she was and how much time had past. Between the injury to her head, her concussion and whatever the brain does when the body starts to die, Kaylei had gone into cadiac arrest afterall, her mind was now in a jumble but Kathrine was happy the Commander was trying to sort everything out, it meant she was getting better. Her body was 'resetting' itself almost.

The doctor had tried to find Kaidan and Liara after her medical team left and Shepard was comfortable, she had found the two in sleeper pods and so had decided not to disturb them, she knew how much Liara could use some sleep and any rest the Lieutenant gave his leg was good to help it heal, it also gave the Commander time to rest, she was still very confused and the painkillers were starting to take their effects now. Kathrine watched Kaylei as she slept and she recalled the first time she had met the Commander, she certainly wouldn't be forgetting the first time she laid eyes on Hero of Eylisium.

_~~~~~~~~~~~~Shepard and Doctor Chakwas~~~~~~~~~~~~_

_Of all the ships Chakwas had served on, the Normandy was by far one of the best, its medical systems were the most complex she had seen but at the same time were still easy to use and handle even by the most rookie of her team, if any of the Normandy's medical team could be called rookies. The youngest and the one who had spent less time than anyone else in the medical field was a young nurse, Angie Thompson, at the age of thirty one and who only had nine years in the medical profession. Angie may have been the less experienced of the team, but she was in no way a rookie._

_Kathrine Chakwas had spent most of her time aboard the impressive ship, looking around the medical bay and getting herself familar with the layout of the equipment as well as finishing the setting up the individual crew member's medical profiles to her terminal computer. She couldn't believe the grade of soldiers, engineers, navigators and even commanding officers that were stationed on the Normandy, it was enough to make you think something was going on, but she was a medical officer, not a soldier, she was there to go where they go and patch them up when they needed it._

_She had been informed that a couple of profiles hadn't been forwarded to her due to an Alliance database breach and the files had been compromised but she had been told it had been nothing major and that the very few individuals who's profiles had been corrupted would be able to bring her their handwritten profiles when the Normandy got underway and everyone was accounted for._

_Kathrine was still setting the profiles she had when the Med-bay door opened, and since the lighting in the Med-bay was dim, as not all of the Normandy's power had been activated, all the doctor was able to see was the silhoutte of a feminine soldier._

_Having been in the military for pretty much her whole career she had learned how to read people from just the stance they took. This unknown shadow oozed confidence and strength while still retaining a, feminine grace that was usally lost through training as the figure walked towards her._

_"Kathrine Chakwas, head doctor?" an authoritive yet soft voice asked uncertainly, although the figure had walked forward the dim light was still enough to conceal the marine's face._

_"That's me, you're a bit early for launch aren't you?" Chakwas said_

_"I prefer to be early, it makes a good impression I find." the woman explained "I'm sorry if I'm interupting a down time but I was told to hand in my profile to you."_

_"Ah, yes, thank you." the woman came closer bringing her features into more light as she gave her files over to the doctor. She was rather striking, slightly unruly dark brown hair fell over her ears and was cut short to conceed with Alliance regulations. She had smooth features with a strong look, everything about this woman screamed soldier, possibly a squad leader since her manner didn't seem very commanding. Anyone else would have told her their rank by now, this woman remained silent on her indentity and Chakwas wasn't one to pry, her 'gossip gathering' days were long over. But since she'd have to take preliminary exams on everyone before take-off the doctor thought she may as well start now. "Say, would you mind if I gave you your preliminary exam now?" the doctor asked standing from her seat to find the soldier was a little taller than her. "I'll be stating today anyway so I may as well start now. If you've got time now of course."_

_"May as well get it out of the way."_

_"Okay then, by the way, what's your first name?" Chakwas asked "I find it better knowing someone on a first name basis if I'm sticking needles into them for bloodwork."_

_"Don't mind needles, and the name's Kaylei." the woman said, depositing her duffel bag at the foot of one of the Med-beds and taking a seat on another, where Elizebeth was able to see her face much better from the light coming from the circular storage areas encircling the head of the specialliy beds. The woman's right eyebrow had a scar running through it, the cut was made even more distinctive by the lack of brow hair where the cut had destroyed the eyebrow hair folicles, there were other scars on her face, another scar was situated under her right eye as well as another cut scar that had wounded her bottom lip. This marine had seen battle. There was one thing that Chakwas noticed that made the old doctor quite excited; Kaylei had hetrochromia eyes, her left eye a gorgeous delicate sky blue and her right was a rich, emerald green. It was sight becoming extremely rare, in all of her working career Chakwas had never seen it, but the contrast of the two colours almost blew her mind. The doctor was able to shake herself from her admiration to begin the examination._

_Kaylei's exam had shown her to be an 'exceptional specimen' of a soldier. For some reason, Chakwas thought she knew this woman some how, but she was certain she had never met a Kaylei before and she continued with the examination._

_She was lean but had good muscle where she needed it, guns were not the doctor's speciality but she knew that holding an assault rifle to your eyes for more than a few seconds would give you terrible backache, she doubted Kaylei had this problem. Kathrine quickly found she like this young woman, she couldn't have been any higher in rank than perhaps a Chief, possibly a Luietenant, because Kaylei was very at ease and showed nothing of the 'tightness' higher ranks often placed on individuals. Eventually, the exam was concluded and Chakwas was left in no doubt this woman was not only every inch a marine, but a kind-hearted woman as well. As Kaylei began to walk towards the door Chakwas realised she still didn't know the full title of her recent pacient._

_"Kaylei, wait a second," she waited for the soldier to turn back to her after picking up her duffel bag in order to leave. "What's your rank and full name? I only just realised I didn't ask." Kaylei's face held a perplexed look, like she had never been asked the qestion before._

_"Oh... sorry, Chakwas. I'm Commander Kaylei Shepard, pleased to meet you, Doctor." after this, Kaylei quickly left, leaving a very stunned Kathrine standing beside her terminal._

_No wonder the doctor felt she knew Kaylei, she'd only seen her image blasted onto every vid-screen this side of the universe something like three thousand times on the news channels after the events on Eylisium._

_There was a while Chakwas thought the soldier may have been pulling her leg, but checking the profile Kaylei had handed to her and comparing the photograph from her profile with screenshots from news vids on the Blitz, the doctor was left without a shadow of a doubt._

_She'd just examined the Hero of the Skylian Blitz and she hadn't even realised it._

_~~~~~~~~~~~~Shepard and Doctor Chakwas~~~~~~~~~~~~_

Chakwas gave out a quiet, stunted laugh at herself and shook her head remembering the first time she had laid eyes on a strong, kind-hearted, wise young woman that would turn out to be THE Commander Kaylei Shepard, Herorine of Elysium. She would never forget the Commander's eyes, not just the rare hetrochromia colours but the confidence and sharpness of the mind behind them.

And the doctor could think back to when the Commander had dragged herself out of the wreakage of the Citadel Tower and her subsequent collaspe from the miriade of injuries and blood loss once having found her crew was alive and well. How when they had carefully removed her crushed helmet the amount of blood that had come from the cut to her head had dripped from her hair like a soft rain as they lifted her onto the stretcher they would use to get her to the Med-bay on the Normandy. Kaylei had sporadically regained conciousness a few times for no more than a few seconds after they had succesfully recucitated her, but Chakwas could not forget the look in the Commander's eyes as the pupils fought to get into focus.

The strong woman who was their Commander was no where to be seen in them, only fear and strength of will to survive through the pain. She had seen the photos in the Commander's quarters and Chakwas was certain that those eyes which had been looking up at her from a face thickly covered in blood were Kaylei's, not Commander Shepard's, the eyes of a young girl not sure what to do and wondering why she was in pain.

_"... tough soldiers with piercing eyes and sensitive souls."_ She remembered what she had told the Commander some time ago in a convrsation they had, before the Commander had been made a Spectre and before all of this began.

Chakwas looked back over at the sleeping Spectre, whose eyes were now closed but the rapid movement of her eyes under the lids showing she was dreaming. Kaylei's chest was still uncovered as the huge slashes healed, but her breasts were covered for her diginity's sake and a light blanket covered her legs and groin. The scarring on the Commander's face only hinted at the scars the soldier had elsewhere. "Tough soldiers, piercing eyes and sensitive souls." the doctor said quietly to herself so as not to wake her patient.

In his makeshift sleeping quarters in the back of the mako Wrex diligently work on his 'little project', which he knew was going to have a tremendous impact on his life, but he could not help feeling a great swell of pride as the tip of his combat knife made light work in gnawing a hole in the joint end of Saren's mandable, scrapping and cutting away at the bone and impossibly small implanted wires that had grown inside the mandable bone. At his crossed feet he had laid a long strand of thinly cut varren leather, two varren fangs and several smaller strips of coloured varren leather which he would soon cut to add decoration to what he was making.

Eventually Wrex had made a hole big enough to fit the tip of a human 'pinky' finger though and he admired the simple work before setting his knife back into the sheath on his belt. Making sure the inside of the carved hole was as smooth as he could make it with his knife alone, but knowing that whatever rough surfaces remained would eventually be worn away by the thin, leather strip he was now carefully threading through the hole. A skill he had always been rather useless at. After a ridiculous amount of time the frustated krogan finally threaded the thin varren leather and tied it off around the mandable joint in a secure noose, Wrex held the leather strand by its ends to make sure he had the mandable centered and was pleased to see his measurements had been accurate enough. He had made doubly sure to use a piece of leather long enough to be tied around his thick neck without the risk of hindering his breathing. Using a series of knots and the coloured leather strips, Wrex was able to create an eye catching series dangling leather strips along the main strand to add decoration to draw the eye to the the mandable. He then added the first of the varren fangs, one he had painted blue, to the left side of the manable after the coloured leather stips and the other fang, painted green, to the side opposite. He felt for now the simple jewelry was done, he could add other decoration later.

Wrex held the handmade necklace by its ends again, pleased that he'd been able to keep the decorations balanced.

He had made a Loyalty Necklace, a rare piece of jewerly only krogans who had sworn a Silent Oath wore.

It was rare sight, and a sight every krogan held sacred and deeply respected. The few indiviuals who wore these were feared as they were always strong warriors, strong warriors were the only ones who made them, prepared to fight for another to the end of their lifes and that was something all krogans feared. It was a practise almost unknown by the Citadel races and the krogans were happy to keep it that way.

Wrex had never thought he'd be making one of these in his long life time, he especially thought he'd never be making one for another spiecies. But now, after surviving what she had survived, having seen her skills for himself, showing him that Saren's 'cure' had ony been a way to enslave his people, and for bringing him a small piece of Saren's head which he had been after since Virmire; he was sure that Shepard deserved this.

Deserved unending service.

He knew it was only a matter of time before the Commander woke up, she wouldn't let something as daft as bloodloss or a knock to the head keep her down on her back. Just as he knew that even with his many years of life already, he would probably still outlive her by a couple more hundred. Which was why he had decided to not only swear his loyalty to her, but to her line as well.

Since he was the last of the Urdnot family, Shepard would forever be 'his' chief; in other words, he was giving up the mercenary life, and he would continue to be servient to the Shepard family though any of her decendants, for the rest of his living years.

He knew of course that she'd have to get herself out of this coma first, but he had every confidence in her. Shepard was not one to leave her followers dangling like bait for a Reaper, she wasn't the type to leave anyone dangling like bait.

The krogan tied the leather necklace around his huge neck and allowed the mandable to settle on his chest before standing to his feet. It was hardly noticable, only the leather rubbing his tough skin was his only hint that he wore the necklace, the tough scales on the back of his neck had no feeling to them. When wearing his full battlearmour he would probably not feel it at all, even if he wore it under the armour. The battlemaster walked, still topless, to the front of the mako where he would be able to his reflection in its tinted frontal window. Garrus was gone, the turian having long gone up to the sleeper pods leaving Wrex to have the storage areas to himself, the Reg Officer hadn't come back from the Citadel yet and Williams' area by the lockers still remained quiet.

Wrex looked at his reflection in the mako's screen and saw with a certain pride that it suited him surprisingly well, the scars on his huge chest and stomach scales adding to the symbolic jewerly's meaning. A toothy grin spilt the krogan's face as he swelled his chest and pulled a quick pose, something he hadn't done since he was a young juvenile showing off to his grandfather whose stretches a young Wrex was always copying. The huge male that had been his grandfather had continued to pull stretches and flex muscles with his grandson and the two had subsequently formed a tight bond, one which had been made even tighter, when the Commander had helped him take back his family's battle armour from that turian scum Torn Actus.

Once again he had stumbled onto another thought involving the human female he was giving his complete loyalty to, and he stopped stretching, the memories of his grandfather and the day he, the Commander and the quarian, Tali, had stormed Actus' stronghold on the frozen planet of Tuntau and retrieved not only his armour but many other relics from the Krogan Rebellions replaying in his mind. Wrex wrapped his hand around the mandable and sighed, his grandfather had been the one to tell him of this ancient bond ritual, so it was hard for the krogan to think about his grandfather, without thinking of the Commander, and he found himself wondering about what his grandfather and the Commander would have been like together. They both had firm veiws on many things, but he felt like the two would have got on well, and that made it feel all the more right he do this.

Wrex pulled himself from his musings and returned to the back of the mako, after clearing away the cuttings from his crafting, he laid himself on the mako's floor, its chill not really effecting him through his scales. He didn't take him long to reach sleep, his thunderous snoring was still audible through the mako's thick bodywork and closed hatch. The Loyalty symbol tied around his hefty neck would now forever remain there.

The next morning was early for Tali, though she actually slept in quite late for a quarian and she put it down to that strange episode yesterday in the Commander's quarters. After replacing her helmet in the safe, decomtaminated sleeper pod, her day started normally, with the check on the repairs she had given to the Galatic Map, she was pleased to see that her replacing of the wires seemed to be working and also, for the first time since repairs began, no one was reporting any little anomolies. Perhaps the bugs had finally died off.

With none of the little annoyances Tali soon found herself travelling to the helm of the ship where the apparently ever-present Joker sat, she still had regular duties to perform and checking the Nomandy's systems was one of them.

"Hey Tali, business or pleasure?" Joker asked, hearing footfalls behind and knowing Tali's routine and expecting her to show up sooner or later for a Helm check.

"When it comes to the Normandy, Joker, business _is_ pleasure." Tali responded, quite seriously. Years of survival in the Migrant Fleet had given all quarians a restlessness to work if you weren't working that meant something could be going wrong on the ship you were traveling in. It was a mentallity that had kept ships almost three centuries old working and running. "Just the normal checks today, unless there were any of those little annoyances?"

"No annoyances, Tali." Joker confirmed "Those patches you did must be holding up, looks like they did the trick. Oh, and I sent that message you wanted across the Communications Networks."

"Thanks Joker, that should get its way to the Floatilla some time soon, as for those 'annoyances' I just hope I never have to replace perfectly good, working-order wires again. All of the wires I removed, there was nothing wrong with them, it was worrying!" the quarian explained as she sat in the co-pilots seat to Joker's left, operated its terminals and opened ports for her omni-tool. "Is there any news?" Tali asked solemnly after a moments pause.

"No Tali, no news." The young, alien woman's shoulders drooped as she connected her omni-tool with the ports in the terminal and began the seqence that would stat the systems check.

"Oh, well, I'll be able to see her for myself when I've finished here, I've got to do a through test of the medical bay anyway."

"Tell me how she looks afterwards, yeah?" Joker asked, as he saw the quarian's omni-tool flash blue, signalling that the check was done and everything was working correctly.

"Yeah, okay," Tali disengaged the ports and turned the co-pilot's terminal off, she got to her feet and began her walk to the medical bay. "Later Joker."

"See ya Tali, say 'hi' to the Commander for us."

When Tali reached the Med-bay she was slightly surprised when she found the doctor was no where in sight, normally Doctor Chakwas was always near the Commander but it seemed the Doctor was off elsewhere today, leaving the unconcious Commander alone.

The young quarian had no idea that the her human role-model on the med-bed was only sleeping now, having woken yesterday but the doctors and the two other members of crew who had witnessed her revival had said nothing to anyone else, wanting to give her time to recouperate. Tali came to sit on the chair that normally Lieutenant Alenko would sit at, when he wasn't working he was always with the Comamnder. The young quarian set her tools down on the med-bed beside Shepard's deciding she'd tell the Commander about several things hapenning on the Normandy lately. She often did as Doctor Chakwas had told her that talking to her may help bring the Commander round. Tali wasn't sure how, but her little chats with the Commander helped get things off her chest, frustrations and worries. As always, she stated her one-sided conversation the same way. "The crew sends their regards, Commander. We just wish we didn't have to." She paused for a second, realising the the Commander had shifted somewhat since the last time she had visited. "Hey, weren't you laying a bit lower? Ah, nevermind, probably just me I haven't visited for a couple of days, have I, sorry we've all been busy. Well I haven't had to contend with any of those anomalies today, pray I never do angain, I was really getting worried that something was wrong. Oh, speaking of which, I better keep on with my duties." Tali stood up and picked up her equipment, the movement of Shepard's right arm lifting to rest gently over her stomach, missing her slashes and the copious medigel Chakwas had coated both her main injuries in. Tali crouched at the foot of the bed nearest the door, the one the Commander had first been placed on before the sudden loss of power in the med-bay.

Tali opened the panel protecting the medical bay system's ports and opperated her omni-tool, after connecting the tool with the ports she continued her conversation with the Commander. "I had a strange thing happen yesterday, I was in your quarters and your old music machine was playing, it gave me quite a spook, but it helped me sort some things out as well. I can only hope that my message gets to the Floatilla soon."

Her omni-tool flashed blue, no problems, everything was working correctly. She stood up and looked back over to the Commander, noticing that her arm had moved. She froze. "Shepard?" the Commander didn't move and she called again. When the human still didn't move Tali could only come up with the conclusion that the Commander hadn't move and that her mind was only making it seem that the Commander was moving her limbs, you couldn't move when you were in a coma. She sighed as she turned and crouched again to disengaged her omni-tool, she was missing Shepard more than she realised. "Well, that's everything Commander, I wish you the best. Try and... " Tali's breath caught in her throat as she watced Shepard's eyes opened and focused on her, the green and blue eyes looking past Tali's tinted visor. For an agonizingly long, moment, the med-bay was silent, Tali not daring to move as Shepard's eyes roamed over her. Tali felt moisture begin in her eyes again as it dawned on her that the Commander may not remember, the Doctor had told them that her head injury could cause memory problems. Something inside her fell on its side as she thought the Commander would never again be the woman she was and Doctor Chakwas was no where to be seen to help. _'She dosen't remember. She doesn't remember. Oh by the Ancestors, what about Kaidan?'_

Her eyes widened, however, as she watched a smile creep across the Commander's face.

"Goodmorning, Tali." Kaylei said, her dry throat and ribs protesting from her speech. The Commander didn't hear a reply, Tali had rushed to find Chakwas. Tali's tool kit, her most prized possession, left discaded on the Med-bed neighbouring Kaylei's.

Kathrine was nursing a headache. As much as she enjoyed young Tali's dedication and want to help, she wished the young woman could hold her excitement better. As it was now the doctor had only allowed Wrex, Liara, Garrus, Kaidan and of course, young Tali to be with the Commander. Everyone else was going to have to wait until the Commander was a bit stronger and when her headache finally abated.

When Tali had rushed to find her, the quarian had told everyone she met that the Commander was awake, sending everyone in a panic to find the poor doctor. She had been down in engineering to see the Lieutenant about his arm, reminding him he'd have to get the bandaging changed and using the excuse to see how his leg was healing. His limp was still pronouced, but Kaylei woke up, he coped better with the aches. When Tali had appeared at the elevator and bee-lined for the doctor and the Liuetenant, Kathrine knew she was not going to get much rest today.

Tali had made the mistake of going to Joker, of all people, to ask if he knew the whereabouts of the doctor and told him exactly why she needed the medical officer so urgently. So naturally, everyone on the Normandy,as well as their friends, family and pet hamster, knew the Commander was now awake. The crowd that had gathered outside the Med-bay in the Mess wasn't as bad as she thought, mostly the heads of the different sections on the Normandy with a few servicemen and women come to ask if Tali was telling the truth. Kathrine had told the gathered crowd that Shepard was awake, but weak, and only her ground side crew members could see her at the minute. The crew had been furious that no word had been given to them when the Commander first woke up, but Chakwas had pulled her own rank and soon put down their arguements. Medical would always outstrip military in these matters.

Now it was like this, she was sat at her terminal nursing her head while the Commander listened to her gathered crew talking about everything that had happened in the past weeks that Shepard was asleep. Kaidan looked especially put out, it looked like he wouldn't get his Commander to himself afterall.

"What took you so long, Shepard, if you wanted time off just take shore leave." Wrex's deep voice said, leaning against the neighbouring Med-bed. Kaylei grinned at the krogan's words, trying not to breathe too deep as her broken ribs were still painful.

"I didn't realise I was out that long." Shepard confessed, her voice still whispery to minimise the effect on her lungs, her sore throat was getting better since she had started drinking on her own again "I was just in a dark place."

"So why did you wake up? What brought you out?" Tali asked, not quite understanding what the Commander meant. She was sat on the same Med-bed Wex was leaning against. The Commander concentrated as she tried to think, but found it almost impossible, the memories of where she'd been in her head were so vivid when she was alone but trying to explain them to others, those same vivid memories just dissappeared.

"All I remember is... being alone on the Normandy, a blue light, feeling cold, then feeling warm... and then I'm back with Kaidan in my quarters... the night before Ilos... " a slight blush found its way to the cheeks of the Commander and the Lieutenant who was sat on the left of the Commander's bed with her left arm resting on his uninjured leg. Everyone else just smiled at the two, their relationship was a quiet talking point for the whole crew and the bond was obviously deepening.

"Well that would explain why you were so intent on pulling me down." Kaidan said, remembering the strength of the arms that had refused to let him go until she was just to tired to hold on. Everyone smiled at the Commander's expense when her blush deepened.

"I was confused, I thought it was Ilos again... its differcult to explain."

"We don't mean to intrusive Shepard," Liara said, she and Garrrus were the only ones standing "it's just good that you're finally awake again. Some of us thought we may never get the chance again."

"That's right, I still haven't been able repay you back for the turian menu, Commander." Garrus replied, his eyes full of mirth and his mandables relaxed. Kaylei smiled, she hadn't realised how much her crew had missed her, and she would never fully understand how empty the Normandy had felt without the presence of its Commander.

"I'm sorry that I caused you all the distress, especially those of you that brought me back from the Citadel... I saw the photos the doctor took." She saw Liara shudder and she felt Kaidan start shaking by her side and she gently gripped his thigh to remind him she was back now as the group went silent. Garrus' mandables went tight again, Tali stared to the floor and Wrex, well Wrex just stood there.

"There was so much blood... " Liara said, her eyes far away as she relived the memory of the Citadel wreakage and the Commander's blood flowing in the joints and cracks of the floor tiles. "... It was... it was like... "

"I don't you want to relive it for me, Liara." Kaylei said, her voice sounding more like the Commander Shepard that had first rescued her from her self-made Prothean prison on Therum. "I don't care if I remember, to be honest I don't want to rememer it at all, to me, it was just a collection of bad dreams and memories that I can't quite seem to remember. I don't want any of you sitting on them for me, they are not your memories, so forget them." She paused so her words would sink in to her gathered crew before a smile again graced her pale features. "Enough about that, I've been in a coma for two weeks and no one has told me what's going on. So... what's going on?"

The gathered crew of four aliens, Kaidan and Chakwas, still sitting at her desk began to explain that the Coucil and the Destiny Ascention had been successfully saved by Shepard's orders and the Council had been sending weekly messages about the Commander's health; Joker had already sent a message to the telling them the recent change in the Commander's health. The repairs were almost completed to the Citadel and the Normandy was now back to full working order; completely bugless, Tali was quick to add. It was about noon when Kaylei began showing signs of tiredness that the doctor began to herd Wrex, Garrus and Tali out the door, Liara placed herself in her office when the doctor rounded to her and then that left Kaidan with Kaylei.

The doctor agreed to let Kaidan stay if he let her change the bandage on his arm and that Kaylei tried to get some sleep. When the doctor began to remove the Liutenant's old bandage, Kaylei was already asleep.

Somewhere far from the Commander, another being felt the woman's tiredness. Stirred from it millenias long sleep, but having watched patiently all throughout, It realised It was finally time. After so long It would call the Collective, contact this Shepard, the first to destroy a Ja'loji in five billion years.

It would have to wait, however, the Shepard's injuries must heal and then she would have to find It. But It could wait, afterall, what was a few weeks, to someting that just Always Is.


	4. Ch Three: The Passage of Time

Chapter Three! We should finally be seeing some proper action in Chapter Four, although I'm still not sure whether to a short interlude in the story to help break it up, whatever I decide the next chaper will be coming soon.

So here's Chapter Three, written only for enjoyment of the fans of the greatness that is Mass Effect. Which is owned by the clever people at Bioware.

A small note for the American readers: the end of the second paragraph mentions jelly. Please realise that since I'm English, jelly here in England is actually what you guys call jello. I think, sorry if I got it wrong.

Also sorry about the tale I made for Shepherd's Pie. The first time I played Mass Effect I was eating it and I just couldn't keep this little day-dream out of my head.

R n' R for me. It helps make the story better for everyone.

Chapter Three: The Passage of Time

Captain Anderson had seen a lot of destruction and death in his career, it came with the territory of being a marine, if you weren't dealing it out than someone was certainly dealing it to you. But fleets of uncountable amounts of sentient, hostile machines, bent on eradicating all organic sentience in the galaxy; that was a first for him. While he hadn't doubted Shepard's explainations on the Reapers, a fact the Council didn't want to hear about despite the Spectre's sincerity, even he hadn't counted the firepower needed to bring down one of those monsters. The battle of Sovereign was still fresh in his mind, along with the images that had been recorded by C-Sec cameras in the Tower and Council Chambers, the fight between Shepard, her crew and the remote controlled husk that had once been Saren corpse.

His hands clenched into fists as he remembered the state of the Commander after he pulled her out from under the rubble of the Reaper limb. He had to wait for several others to help lift some of the wreckage that had been pinning her chest but he was finally able to free her, covered in blood, the front of her Colossus hardsuit's black and red armour and fabric ripped open revealing the torn, bloody flesh underneath, the Commander's crushed helmet noticably concave on one side of her head, blood coming from a head injury somewhere hidden under the destroyed helm. He hadn't dared remove it, Chakwas would've killed him if he did so without her there. Even the battle-hardened Captain could only see so much blood before it got to him, the fact it was all of Shepard's had only made his panic and dread worse.

The Captain jumped when he was brought out of his disturbing day-dream when his terminal began to sound a hailing message. It had been sent over a secure channel and was addressed from the Normandy, Lieutenant Moreau, to be more precise. David immediately opened the link and greeted the Normandy pilot. "Good day, Joker, if this isn't about the Commander then I'm hanging up."

"Sir, she's awake!" the Pilot sounded absolutely estactic, and upon the news registering to his own mind Anderson wasn't far from it as well. He sat forwards in case he had hadn't heard correctly.

"What? Joker, when?"

"A couple of hours ago, Captain. I tried to contact you earlier, Sir, but you weren't in your office." Joker said quickly before the Captain could rant at him for not informing him earlier.

"I was at a hearing with the Council." the Captain explained "Is she still awake Joker, is Chakwas letting people see her."

"Want to make sure I'm not pulling your leg, Sir?"

"Joker?" the Captain's voice was dangerously low and he could hear the pilot going pale.

"Yes, Doctor Chakwas is letting the crew see her, but you'll have to hurry. I don't think the Doctor will let anyone else in if the Commander starts looking tired."

"Fine, Lieutenant, please forward a message to the number I'm about to give you. It's a contact for the Councilours, they'll want to hear the news too."

"Yes Captain, I'll forward it the second you let this line go." With that, David shut the line and closed off the terminal.

With Kaidan's arm free from the old bandage, Chakwas was able to monitor the progress of his healing laceration, deciding whether or not she could do anything with the wound to help it heal quicker. Kaidan just wished he could give the skin surrounding the stitched wound a good, long scratch; he'd been dying to icth ever since he woke up from his sleeper pod knowing that he was getting the bandage changed. Seeing the pleading in the Lieutenant's eyes she sighed and finally relented.

"Very well, Alenko, but be careful of the stitching."

"You're an angel, Doc." With that, the dark haired liuetenant set about releving his irritated skin and, keeping to his promise, kept his fingers away from the cut and the stitching. A pleased look crossing his face while Doctor Chakwas sorted through the different dressings to find the one that Alenko needed and a container of medi-gel to coat the laceration. The wound was healing quick, he would probably be left with a scar, but scars were common for every marine. Chakwas even had a few herself. Besides there were surguries that could remove scars or at least make them more sightly, the doctor doubted if the Commander had even thought about having any of her scars removed. "Alright Doctor, I'm ready, it's feeling better today," the Luietenant said from the bed next to Shepard "not as itchy today either."

"Good, it's healing well, a few more days and I can take the stitches out, you just have to put up with it a little while more." Kathrine told the biotic as she crossed over to him and began spreading the cool medi-gel over the wounded area. "How's your leg today, you're still bit sore aren't you?"

"To be truthful, Doctor, I haven't really been noticing it. Ha, Kaylei's been getting the attention." Kathrine rolled her eyes and muttered something to herself which sounded very much like '_young love_' to the biotic liutenant. Kaidan decided to try and distract the head doctor with some talk on the only other member of crew to have recieved wounds from the Citadel fight. Liara's wounds had already healed, the asari had got to cover during the fight with Saren and used her biotics to help strenghten the shielding of the himself, Tali and Kaylei; she had also been able to escape the damage radius from Soveriegn's limb. The quarian had been found with him when Captain Anderson had led a rescue team to get them. "How's Tali doing, she looks better. But I heard quarians are able to hide pain better than most other races."

"Tali's fine now, she's still a bit tender around her shoulder and ankle but as far as injuries, she completely healed." Kathrine explained, knowing the lieutenant was just choosing conversation and making small-talk to past the time as she wrapped the dressing she had placed over the medi-gel coated cut to his arm. "She had a couple of pieces of shrapnel in her thigh but the cuts are gone now, not even scars. I think it has something to do with her work." Chakwas explained, realising she was getting drawn into the conversation, she hadn't had a good chat for weeks; Shepard could've come out of her coma at any time and Kathrine hadn't left the Med-bay for more than a few minutes each day knowing the Commander could've needed care. "She's a workhorse all of her own, she threw herself into her work on the Normandy repairs and I reckon she just forgot she was injured."

"That certainly sounds like her." came a voice from the Commander's bed that caused both doctor and biotic to jump.

Kaylei was looking at them through half-lidded eyes and although Kaidan could only see the beautiful but tired smile that graced her face, Kathrine could tell there was a pained edge. Quickly finishing the dressing on Kaidan's arm she made her way to the Commander's bedside where Kaylei was now shifting, trying to alliveate the pain from her side wound.

"Morphine low?" Kathrine asked.

"Yeah, I'm starting to feel it now. Always know it's bad when it wakes me up." Kaylei said. The Commander often found it hard getting to sleep, when she was finally able to achieve slumber she was out of it until morning, nothing short of an alarm or an explosion would be able to wake her up.

"Stop squirming and I'll give you another dose, do you want me to include a sedative?"

"No, just the painkiller." Kaylei anwsered, she stopped shifting as the doctor prepared a needle and tucked the sedative she had been taking from the compartments above the Commander back into its place. Meanwhile, Kaidan was proving a momentary distraction to the Spectre's pain as he took his place back in the seat to the side of her bed. "How's your arm?"

"Getting better, my leg too." Kaidan said running a hand over her hair.

"I need a proper bath." Kaylei said, despite the washes she had recieved from the doctors she still felt like she needed a good soak in a proper bath or a shower. "I must look terrible." Kaidan just smiled.

"There you are Commander, that should take effect soon," Doctor Chakwas said as she disposed the needle, she made sure the drip in the back of the Commander's hand was still situated properly, a habit she had developed over her career. "Are you alright now Shepard? Comfortable?"

"Yeah, for now, thank you Doctor," Shepard said turning her head to look at the aging doctor "a bit hungry but I can hold out."

"You must be feeling better if you've got your appetite already." Kathrine said, smiling, obviously taking the news very well. "If it's not too hardy you can try, what's your fancy?" Shepard looked wistful and her eyes gained a far-off, dreamy look as she thought of the greastest dish, in her opinion anyway, Earth and humanity had to offer.

"Shepherd's Pie." Both the Commander's lover, and the doctor gave the prone warrior wide grins, thinking back to a conversation on how Shepard got her namesake; but niether were able to think on it for long.

As the Infirmary door opened, Kathrine's face hardened and she was about to turn the trespasser one eighty and straight out the door again, or at least that's what she planned to do until she saw who it was.

"Captain Anderson! Joker didn't say to expect you."

"The lieutenant is relaying a message for me, sorry I came unannouced but I had to see for myself if it was true." the Captain explained, his face couldn't hide the smile as he was able to steal glances over the doctor's shoulder to see the Commander's dual coloured eyes look back at him. Chakwas looked like she had half a mind to turn him out since Shepard was still tired and was in pain, but of course he was the Captain and the change of face may help distract Shepard.

"Fine you can talk with her, but if she gets tired again I'd appreciate it if you'd leave." With that the doctor returned to her desk and opperated her terminal as the the Captain approached Shepard's bed. Commander and Luietenant gave their ex-leader a firm salute, Commander Shepard holding the salute for less time than Kaidan, her fatigued form letting her strength fail; David Anderson understood and quickly returned their salute.

"When Joker contacted me I couldn't believe it, I had to come see." the Captain explained. "After dragging you from th... after getting you from under... " the words caught in the Captain's throat, the sight of the Commander he regarded as the best in humanity broken and bloody still too fresh in his mind "Well, it's good to see you're mending up well. The doctor's been treating you well?"

"Can't say much for the food, I could murder some of my pie, even that crap they're trying to pass off from the synthesizer."

"It's too much for your system at the moment Commander." came Chakwas' voice from her terminal, a grin on her face again.

"Liquidize it, I'll happily suck it through a straw."

"The best you can have at the moment is jelly, what with that injury to your stomach even I have no idea what else could've happened to the muscles of your stomach and intestines." Chakwas said, her eyes gleaming in a motherly way as Shepard pouted, denied her favourite food. Kaidan stood from his seat and made to the door.

"I'll get go grab some, I'm feeling hungry myself, anyone else want to join?" Kaidan asked.

Even though it wasn't Shepherd's Pie, Kaylei found herself enjoying the jelly more than she thought she would. After a week or so in a coma her body and tastebuds were singing with the first mouthful of the raspberry flavour. Protiens and nutrients given to her body through drips and various tubes had kept her from starving but her muscles seemed to have craved the workings of her own digestive system in action. The drips were alien to it, this was proper again, normal again, and Kaylei relished in it, the sugar from the sweet jelly rushed her system and the endorphins realeased from the simple pleasure relaxed and excited the tired and battered body of the Commander in a strange way.

It felt good to be eating for herself.

It felt good for muscles to finally spring back to life after being so long ignored.

In short, Kaylei Shepard felt good to be alive.

_~~~~~~~~~~~~Shepard, Crew and Doctor Chakwas~~~~~~~~~~~~_

_The tomato soup was alright, and she guessed if you closed your eyes and didn't breathe through you nose you could pretend the scrambled egg was a rather nice porrigde. She didn't understand that either. The lasegne was surprizingly good and so were most of the pasta dishes, the salads were fine._'_'_Why... why?'_ Kaylei found herself thinking as she looked at a dish she had abandoned a few seconds ago on the Mess table. The normally straight sitting Commander now sat with her back hunched, her left elbow resting on the table as the arm it belonged to acted as a support for the Commander's head. A dejected look graced the Commander's features._

_She knew it was childish, but it was her favourite dish and it had to be one of the meals the synthesisers screwed up. A month into the hunt for Saren and she still hadn't got used to the taste of the Normandy's Shepherd's Pie, she never would because it tasted nothing like Sheapherd's Pie. The tiniest smile tugged the Commander's lips as she thought back to her travelling days and the times she and Bear spent with the Joyner family. The Joyners ran an organic farm in Newquay, Cornwall. Mrs Joyner had struck up a friendship with the young Kaylei and she and Bear had spent a couple of month or so helping at the farm. Mrs Joyner, afterwards known as Jane, had cursed poor Kaylei's tastebuds by making the most delicious Shepherd's Pie the young nomad had ever tasted._

_Although she hadn't been to Cornwall's amazing beaches or beautiful coastal towns for a while she still kept in contact with the Joyners; she still stayed in contact with everyone she and Bear had met._

_Maybe once the mission was over she'd see how everyone was doing. _'How big is Thomas now?'_ Kaylei quickly found herself thinking. Jane and John Joyner's grandchild. Kaylei had not seen that little boy since his second birthday; just two days after she had recieved her Star of Terra for the attack on Elysium. Time off for recouperation had been a good reason to be there at the little boy's birthday party. She still remembered the look on little Thomas' face when his 'aunty' Kaylei had turned up at his party; after a sleepless night and day of fast shuttles across the galaxy to be back at the Joyner farm. _'I only thought Salarians had eyes as big as that.'

_Another little thought and she realised she had become an anuty to a lot of kids._

_She had of course sent everyone messages and cards at Christmas, birthdays and numerous other special dates and occasions; she never forgot, her memory was something she always prided herself in. Kaylei was once again sitting straight in her seat and the hunger that had encouraged her to try the synthesied pie was forgotten, she felt full. "What do you know?" Kaylei said aloud to herself "You can live on love."_

_"Pardon, Skipper?" came Ashley's voice from beside her. Kaylei was knocked from her thoughts as she saw that sometime in her little daydream her whole squad had made it into the Mess hall. Most were now seated at the table with her, Kaidan and Liara were still choosing their meals and Doctor Chakwas was in line behind them._

_"Sorry Ash, I was just thinking." Kaylei said, noticing even Tali was seated and eating with them, her breather, with the light mechanism that flashed on and off as she spoke, was placed beside her dish of something that looked like a turian meal and allowed the squad to see the slightest glimpse of a human looking mouth with thin lips, the top lip was spilt in the middle and this spilt, which Tali explained worked like a Jacob's Organ, stopped sharply at her nose. She could smell taste and taste smells. The implants the quarian girl had were strong enough to cope with limited exposure to the Normandy's recycled and decontaiminated air to allow her to eat in safety and clean out her breather._

_"You were thinking pretty deep there, Ma'am. Feel like sharing?" Ashley pressed, starting her own meal, a hearty stew._

_"Just about some friends back on Earth, met them during my travels with Bear."_

_"You've mentioned this Bear several times in previous conversations, Commander." Garrus said, shifting slightly to allow Kaidan to sit beside him. "Who is he? A partner of yours?"_

_"You could say he was something like that, he was never my pet. Bloody mongrel never listened to a word I said." the Commander explained, confusion setting over the turian, quarian and asari, the humans just continued eating._

_"He wasn't a romantic interest?" Liara asked, the only thing that kept Ashley from bursting out in laughter was a well placed Commander's boot landing squarely on the Gunnery Chief's toes, hidden by the table. "Chief Williams! Are you okay!" Commander Shepard only looked at the Chief in a confused manner, knowing she'd have to make it up to Williams later._

_"Oww... I-I'm fine, just... just a cramp. I'm o-okay. I-I'm okay... I won't!" Ashley's relief was evident as her sudden pain left her toes and the Commander began talking again._

_"No. He was my dog, well, I say MY dog he was A dog. Like I said, he never listened to me, just stuck with me as I moved about."_

_"Umm... Commander?" Kaylei looked to Tali whose voice sounded exceptionally gentle without her breather in the way. "You said before that you grew up without a family, that you always remember being on the streets and travelling, but..." Kaylei gave the young quarian a kind look, she knew that this coversation would eventually come about, so she may as well get it out the way._

_"Carry on,"_

_"Well... how did you earn your name?" The question had everyone listening as Tali pressed on, now she had the Commander's permission to ask questions she wanted to really understand. "You said yourself you had nothing on you to say who you were and that your most distant memory was when you were six, by then you were already on yourown. I was just wondering. Why Kaylei Shepard?"_

_"I gave myself the name Kaylei when I first enlisted into one of those voluntary schools the British goverment was setting up, it was a radical idea to try and keep the street kids away from drugs and gangs and whatnot, it work well for some and not-so-well for others." the Commander began to explain "I was about seven and had been using aliases up until then. I saw schooling as a new start, so I picked one of my aliases and stuck with it. They didn't ask for last names as it was afterall, a voluntary school, to make sure they couldn't use the second name as a way to track down parents." Shepard took a quick breather before continuing. "As of Shepard, well... I took it from something very close to my heart."_

_"Not to mention your tastebuds." Chakwas mumbled into her drink of coffee. The Commander shot her a quick look but turned back to Tali, Ashley had probably heard the doctor as she was trying to hold a humoured smile in check, fearing for her toes again._

_"I named myself after my favourite food dish back on Earth, Shepherd's Pie."_

_~~~~~~~~~~~~Shepard, Crew and Doctor Chakwas~~~~~~~~~~~~_

Although the Commander's legs had miraculously escaped serious injury, Doctor Chakwas had been reluctant to allow the Commander to stand up after just a couple of days. With Kaidan and the Doctor's help she had been able to stand up for the first time since the fight with Sovereign and the Doctor had been pleased when the Commander had just wanted to stand the first time she was allowed to get up. The Commander had proven long ago that she knew how far she could push her body and when she was able to push beyond her limit, the first time on her feet had made her feel light-headed and she had just spent a few minutes leant against her lover, the excuse to test her feet made a good excuse to get closer for the two.

Her arms were wrapped securely around his midriff and her head was resting on his chest, the two looked to be wrapped in an embrace, which they were, but they were also making sure Kaylei's legs didn't buckle from under her. Kaidan stroked her hair, which she had been able to wash, and felt her tighten her grip around him. "I was able to finally send a reply to a message from Ashley's mother this morning," Shepard said, listening to the rhythm of his heartbeat under her left ear "she wants us to attend a memorial funeral for Ash."

"What did you say?"

"That I would be honoured to come, but that I may not be able to make it, I told her that I'd only just got up from a coma and that Chakwas probably won't let me off of bedrest for anything."

"Well then you'll just have to heal fast won't you? I know you want to go, but the Saviour of the Galaxy must take it steady for a small while." Kaidan explained, his hand rubbing the small of her back.

"Saviour of the Galaxy? That's a new one."

"The news-vids somehow got footage of us fighting Saren below the Citadel chambers, they're hailing you as a Reaper Slayer."

"Do you think we'll ever have just a quiet life?" Shepard asked looking up into Kaidan's face. A smile graced his features as he placed a gentle kiss on her forehead.

"So... we are serious?"

"Of course we are, you should know I don't do things by halves. Even though I was nearly cut in half, but that's over now, we still have more Reapers to slay. I want to know that I've got a reward waiting for me when we're finished." the Commander said softly, giving her Liuetenant a pointed stare.

"You will, you already have." Kaidan said giving Kaylei another kiss. "You should sit back down now, I can feel your legs shaking. Still abit sore?" Shepard nodded her head as her lover lowered her to the bed and helped her get comfortable. "You should go. Ash would've wanted you to."

"I know, but I don't like going to funerals, bad memories from the Elysium aftermath."

"The Memorium?" Kaidan asked, remembering the day every human in the galaxy watched as hundreds of people were laid to rest, some of them not present for their own funerals. The black crosses that marked the empty plots where soldiers and civilians should have been placed for their eternal rest would remain empty. It saddened Kaylei, knowing Ashley would be one of those whose body would never be returned.

"Yeah, so many black crosses, too many of them civilians." Kaylei sighed and turned her attention away from the memory of the large hillside that had been chosen to house the many crosses, a place all could see from the main settlement. "How is everything on the Citadel, they must be nearly finished with the repairs by now."

"They only have to get some small repairs done in the Ward arms now, some of Sovereign's debris damaged some of the links that helped moved the arms into the defensive position. But with the Keepers they're predicting it shouldn't take too long before everything's back in it's place and working properly again." The unmistakeble sound of the Med-bay door opening was heard and the two turned towards it. Joker was approaching, his crutches and braces giving him a defined outline as he made his way towards them.

"Pull a chair for me Alenko? Be a gent." he told Kaidan "Here for my checkup, so I may as well have a natter with you two lovebirds before the Doc starts sticking things in me and pulling me about." The pilot sat down on the chair Kaidan got for him and placed his crutches by his side. "Good to hear you're using your legs again Commander."

"The Reapers aren't going to wait for me to get ready, I need to start moving, we haven't got time for healing."

"Although I agree with you Commander, what can you do, you were almost cut in half, you spent a week and four days in a coma, Tali, Liara and Kaidan are hurt and are still healing, and you're probably not going be able to go anywhere until every official power, news reporter and Alliance mind has had a bit of you once your five."

"Joker, you're meant to make me feel better, not give me a headache." Kaylei said with affection, she knew her pilot was just stating very true facts and probabilities but she hopefully wouldn't have to deal with for a time to come. With luck she could insist to the Council that she needed to get underway as fast as possible to track down a way to stop the genocidal machine fleet that was coming to destroy all life.

"I'm sorry Commander, but it's true." Joker removed his trademark cap and rubbed his hand through his hair. "By the way, what is Wrex wearing around his neck?"

"Wrex? I haven't seen him wear anything but his battle armour and weapons." Kaidan said

"Well he's wearing somesort of necklace now, looks like a turian mandable and teeth. He doesn't look like the sort to wear decoration so I thought maybe it was something else." Joker explained.

"He hasn't said anything, did you ask him, he's mellowed out a bit since first joining the Normandy, Joker?" the Commander told him.

"I did, he just said it wasn't my concern."

"Then it's not your concern. Wrex may be a krogan and they may be unpredictable, but I'm sure Wrex isn't the type to cause problems, at least intentionally, he's more of the person that 'takes care' of a problem." Kaylei said, Joker nodded his head and replace his cap back on his head.

"Yeah I know, it's just that, every so often, sitting at the helm, I see him on the screens from Engineering just touching it. It seems to mean quite a bit."

"Well, like he said, it doesn't concern us and Wrex can get a little put-out if you keep going on about something he doesn't want to talk about." Kaidan said "Best to just let it slide Joker, your bones are easy enough to break as it is, think about what a biotic, krogan battlemaster could do."

"Don't worry yourself Alenko, I have no intentions of becoming a punching bag." The Med-bay door opened again and Doctor Chakwas finally returned. Seeing that Joker was sat with the Commander she smiled at the pilot and beckoned him to lay on the neighbouring Med-bed. Their simple conversations continued as the Doctor checked the pilots bone structure and tested the sensitivity to his knees and ankles. Kaidan was content to be near Kaylei and talking about such trivial things like old Earth money.

But Kaylei's mind was everywhere, all at once, thinking about her crew, the Reapers, those awaiting news from her back on Earth and Elysium and a certain female turian, academy trainee on Palaven. She really would have to contact them, she imagined that details on who had saved the Citadel would be slow to reach Earth, but she knew that officials and reporters on Elysium would already spreading news about how Their saviour had ordered the Acturus fleet to defend the Destiny Ascension and save the Council. From Elysium it wouldn't take long to reach the Wepker turian colony who had strong trade links with the Elysians and from there, Pare's father would message his daughter.

She would be inundated with messages and she was already feeling the headache about how she was going to explain that she was alright to all of them.

Liara had left the a Normandy early that day, she had needed a little time on her own for a while and since the Commander was awake again and getting stronger by the hour the Doctor had encouraged her when the asari had explained her plans. '_"Every so often, everyone needs a bit of time for themselves, to get a bit of thinking done and reset."_' Chakwas had said, the young maiden asari was grateful for the 'older' doctor's words and indeed, she had done alot of thinking.

Looking out over the newly repaired Presidium she couldn't believe that only a week ago the brigde that spaned the lake from the Embassies to the Consorts Chambers had collasped, the elevator of the Citadel Tower had been sabotaged by Sovereign to stop Kaylei and her three-strong groundside team from reaching Saren, as well as the few collasped apartment complexes and the Emporium. It now looked like nothing had happened at all, everything was proper again, fixed, rebuilt and life carried on, although everyone did seem very quiet and somber. It had, afterall, only been a week since many of the people walking about on the Presidium below the Embassy Lounge balcony she was sitting on were fleeing for the evacuation capsules when Sovereign and the Geth fleet invaded. There were many more Keepers mixed in with the crowd than there was usually, but that was likely because they were still fixing wiring and areas of the Citadel that the other races couldn't reach. Still, Liara felt that they were looking for something.

Liara finished her drink and walked back out of the Embassy areas to the Presidium.

Yes, the crowds were definately more quiet. The young woman walked the rebulit walkways of the Presidium several times, picking up on all the little changes that had come about as a result of Sovereign's assault. Some of the buildings had used the excuse to changed their designs, some had become bigger, others smaller, and in the case of the buildings that collasped sturdier frames were added to ensure collaspe never occurred again. The Avina terminals were all working again as were the crafts of the Fast Citadel travel system, the Emporium was doing business again and the Hanar merchant, Delandindir, who had lost three of his floor-length tentacles when rubble from his collapsing Emporium trapped the three limbs, nodded to her as she past, recognising her as one of his regular customers that visited with the human Commander. Delan's tentacles would grow back in time, it wasn't uncommon for a hanar to lose some of its tentacles when it was involved in an accident and they were a hardier race than others thought. Delan would make a full recovery.

Others were not so lucky.

Outside the Consort's Chambers, there was a bench. Before Soveriegn's assault a human woman and a salarian, apparently very good friends, would always be sat there looking out over the lake as they talked about the most meaningless of things, the Keepers that would rearrange things in the human's office, or the reasons why Salarians had evolved such big eyes, or why humans had hair and even the way the water in the lake would lap at the bases' of the great collumns that suspended the bridges over the lakes witdth, even the music in the Embassy Lounge. When the Commander had brought her along in her groundside team while exploring the Citadel, they had often past this bench and the two friends. They were always talking.

This time, it was quiet, only the salarian sat in his usual spot on the bullet scarred bench. His body's posture and the black 'mourning' band around the sleave on his left arm told everything that needed to be told. One of many tradegies from all over the Citadel. The mourning salarian stayed silent as Liara past him.

Liara continued walking, crossing the bridge to the Embassies, back where she started her walk-round. Where the buildings had been rebuilt, improved and even enlarged, the population on the Citadel was quiet, many had decided it was safer to move away from the Citadel all together and she guessed they were right. From what Vigil had told them on Ilos, how the Reapers would first ravage the population found on the Citadel and then move out to the planets, but she knew that moving from the Citadel would only delay the inevitable if Kaylei failed to find a way to stop the machines. Liara felt her feet moving again, trying to stop herself from thinking these terrible thoughts, whenever she thought of the Reapers she didn't automatically think of the Galatic-wide Culling the Commander did, all she thought about was indoctrination and the way it had ravaged her mother, turned her into nothing but a slave for Saren's will.

She felt the tears in her eyes, but was able to blink them away, only just.

At least the Commander was still here. The races of the galaxy still had a chance with the Commander now making a speedy recovery under the watchful care of Doctor Chakwas and Kaidan, the biotic Luietenant had hardly left Shepard's injured sides. Then again, Liara herself hadn't strayed too far from the Med-bay once Kaylei woke. She imagined that she and Kaidan had not been the only ones, maybe Garrus, but she remembered the first time he had seen the Commader once Doctor Chakwas allowed the Normandy crew back into the Med-bay, his reaction was immediate. His mandables went slack from shock at the extent of her injuries and how pathetic Kaylei had looked just lying on the Med-bed. He had not returned to see the Commander during the time she was in a coma, because he didn't want to see the only chance for success against the Reaper fleet lying dead in the Med-bay.

Since she had recovered the turian visited frequently.

When Liara returned from her thoughts she found herself in the Citadel Tower elevator that went up to the Council Chambers which were now open to the public, namely for one reason since the Council Chambers proper were still off-limits. Most of the rubble had been cleared away now and the huge windows that were situated behind the Councilors' podiums had been replaced, the only thing that remained from Sovereign's attack was the limb that had been left in the middle of the chambers to mark where the Council's Spectre had been dragged from under it, the concrete and broken pillar had been left which had provided some protection from the machinery that had formed some protection for the Commander and although all effort had been made to clean the blood stain from the floor and the broken rubble which had held the Commander, a massive reddish, brown pale ghost remained, even a hand print from Captain Anderson was still visable on the pillar as he had pulled Shepard free.

This was the center of attention for all the vistors to the Chambers now, many civilians as well as diplomats from all races were crowded around the monument dubbed the Shepard's Sacrafice; since nothing had been said to the public about the Commander's health since those that the Spectre was in a coma had aired it was probable that many of the gathered humans, turians, asari, salarians, volus and hanar, even a few krogans, thought the Citadel's saviour dead. Especially since the many Citadel news-reporters had somehow got their hands on the security vids showing the fight between Saren's husk and the Commander.

Tributes of flowers, small trinkets and cuddly toys were laid around the monument and paper notes were pinned and taped to the concrete and Soveriegn's limb, everyday more notes would be added and more tributes would be laid. Liara watched as a salarian taped yet another note to the limb, as high as he could so as not to disturb the other notes, he then turned to a volus and took another to add beside his own. She recognised the salarian as Chorban, the salarian who the Commander had caught scanning the Keepers right here, in the Council Chambers, so that meant that the volus must be Jahleed. Once Chorban had placed their notes the two spoke quietly with each other before they both nodded to each other and left the crowd.

Liara made her way to where the two had been and read their notes. Both were quite simple, but held emotion.

_Thank you for your compassion and your understanding, most of all, thank you for eveything you have allowed us to achieve._

_A salarian you left an everlasting impression upon, Chorban'Keryhf'Beolfsedan'Qoane_

Liara smiled as she finished the note and began reading the note she assumed Chorban had placed onto the monument for Jahleed.

_You have done your clan greatly for the sacrafices you were prepared to give. I hope that whatever diety there is sees fit to give you a second chance as you saw fit to give me and Chorban. Hoping for your full recovery._

_Jahleed the Volus_

All the notes were much like this and Liara was soon reading other notes around Jahleed's and Chorban's. She had been here only a day before and now most of the first notes that had places by humans had been covered by other notes from other races, but Liara easily remembered other notes left by others like the salarian and volus. One had been a hanar preacher which had read:

_Your words of wisdom shall never leave This One and It prays that should the worst and unspeakable befall you, that the Glorious Enkindlers see you as their own._

_Lonrasidgar_

For the different races, this new, recent focal point to the Council Chambers, meant different things. The humans paid respects for the Commander being one of their own and her previous rescue of Elysium, other races came for her saving the Citadel, other races for what she represented and others, like the preaching hanar, Lonrasidgar, to pray for her health.

With more and more details about the Reapers reaching the public the crowd was only going to get larger and the mountain of tributes would grow. The young maiden tired of the notes, though she would probably be back later to read them once the gathering had dispersed, and she took a seat away from the monument near the stairways that lead up to the Council Chambers. She had wondered about what would happen to all the tributes once the crowds stopped coming or once they got word that Shepard was still alive and planning to continue her hunt for the Reapers as soon as she was healed and had seen to other matters, but it didn't hold her mind for long.

"Liara T'Soni?" The scientist's head turned and Liara quickly found her feet as she came face to face with the asari councilor, Sidahn'na Adjara, her unique, rich purple skin and pale Matron markings making her instantly recognisible. The Councilour was accompanied by two other asari, most likely from her commando regiment bodyguard.

"Councilour Adjara, sorry, my mind is everywhere at the moment." Liara explained quickly. Sidahn'na smiled to the young T'Soni trying to get the maiden to relax in her presence.

"I only wondered if you would accompany me to the Normandy?" Sidahn'na asked "I recently recieved a message from my contact with Captain Anderson explaining the Commander was finally awake. If not for several other pressing concerns I would have attempted to see her for myself earlier."

"She is still rather weak, Councilor," Liara said "Doctor Chakwas may not even let you see her if Kaylei's having another bad day from the pain. Her ribs and sides took too much punishment from her fight with Saren. Its a miracle she survived."

"It's a miracle she survived Eylisium. It's a miracle she was able to reach you before the Geth, its a miracle she was prepared to risk everything she held close to her to prove that she was right and we were wrong. Shepard is well versed in miracles, Doctor T'Soni."

"Yes, it would appear that she was touched by the Goddess." Liara added and the Councilor nodded before her attention was drawn to the crowd gathered around the huge Soveriegn limb. Like everyone else she had seen the C-Sec footage and how Captain Anderson had manipulated the Commander's body to get her free, the footage had shown every detail to the Commander's rescue as it had her fight with Saren. She had heard people gasp at the state of the Spectre's torn hardsuit and cracked helmet, and of course, the blood.

Adjara had no idea there was so much blood in a human body, if the Commander didn't die right after Anderson pulled her from under the limb she should have died from blood loss; but she was healing now. Sidahn'na was in no doubt that if it had been anyone else, the force and the pressure placed onto the body would've killed them. She turned back to Liara whose focus was also on the monument again.

"Touched by the Goddess, and now she's touched millions of others, it is a running theme for the Commander, prepared to give up everything so everyone around her can live."

"Indeed. But she is with us now, and I best hurry if I wish to have an audience with her, you make this Doctor Chakwas sound rather fierce."

"She can be if you get on the wrong side of her, but she is a marvel in her own right." Liara said. As the three asari followed the youngest back to the Normandy, the Councilor thought back to the crushing embrace of the monument and the ghostly stain that stubbornly refused to leave the concrete it had seeped into to, all Sidahn'na could think about was one thing. '_Thank the Goddess it wasn't Liara._'

_"The Reapers aren't going to wait for me to get ready, I need to start moving, we haven't got time for healing."_

_Yes, time is fleeting_. It thought, feeling Its carers slowly course through It's still slumbering physicality, preparing organs for Its awakening and their movement caressing nerves dulled for hundreds upon thousands of years. Sleep was leaving It, but muscles still would not be used until the Shepard arrived.

_Let yourself heal, Loji will not be able to call her children to your galaxy, not until I open the way. Not until you find what you have to find._ It knew for certain, this had happened so many terrible times before It hadn't bothered to keep track, that's what the Collective and the Ja'loji did, they understood time passages better.

For this Being time was too quick; a Clane year wasn't even an eyeblink to It.

It measured passage in the birth and death of a single lifetime, of the rise and extinction of thousands of different spiecies and creatures and the birth and death of planets and stars, not by seconds or minutes and hours. Lifetimes were Its most precious measurement, as long as there was life, there was hope, there was time.

_Your time is not important, only your Life is important._


	5. Interlude: Servants of the Goddess

Sorry this took so long, had a little crisis, but I'm back now. Anyway, I've decided to do these little interludes to help break up some of the plot and keep my writing fresh, I tend to get bogged if I have to keep writing about the same thing.

These interludes will be about little things I think happen on the sides of the main story, it may be directly link to the story or just the charaters little thoughts or everyday lives.

This is just a little something until I upload the next chapter of the main story.

Enjoy and don't forget to reveiw, help me make a better story.

Interlude: Servants of the Goddess

43,476 BCE

Thessia, Asari homeworld

(industrial and exploration age, asari yet to launch first shuttle into space)

It was another beautiful day and the warm weather and strong sun helped accentuate the rich summer colours of the tall trees and other tropic vegetation that grew upon the islands and what made the dense Hyrijad, the jungle belt which stretched across Thessia's equator. The long beaches of fine white sand outlined every island along Thessia's tropical belt and were regarded as just one of many natural wonders. Large numbers of three-foot long kerti turtles had hauled themselves onto the pristine white beaches to begin their egg-laying and paid little, to no heed to the asari expedition team from the Armali nation who were setting up a camp at the tree-line. They used the natural cover of the trees to help keep the beating sun off them as they worked to pitch the tents and unpack supplies, obviously experienced with the workings of a camp.

Rich blue skined Enaa, one of the older maidens, only a few years off becoming a matron, was seeing to the construction of the camp and was watching her younger sister, Irasa, sort through quantities of rolled maps and sea charts to find the ones Matron Be'vanh had asked for. Her little sister was very focused when it came to her work and Enaa knew that Irasa had found her perfect career. She was proud that her baby sister had follwed her into the 'treasure hunting' career; archeology wasn't a popular subject for most asari, some things were meant to stay secret. Enaa did not share their views.

Remembering that she was meant to be over-seeing the others, Enaa looked around until her eyes fell onto another fellow maiden with pale violet skin and exotic green eyes. "Tua? Is the Radio team still searching for a place to set up?"

"Yes Enaa, I've put Recca onto the task of finding a strong enough signal but it will take her some time. With all these trees its a wonder she's able to find a signal at all." Tua explained.

"So long as it's up and running to contact the nearest settlement by tonight, if she can't find a strong signal by six she'll just have set up and use the ariel. After finishing up with what you're doing now, make sure everyone has pitched correctly, report to me once you've done so." Tua nodded and continued. Enaa headed in the direction of the small tent that was used to store equipment and yet more charts and maps, it was also where Matriarch Jehanren's, the High Prietess from the Naed Temple of the Dancing Light, and her and Irasa's mother, liked to read through the reports on the site they were to investigate. The matriarch was sitting at her desk reading through the files detailing how a group of friends from the recently settled islands had been swimming and found a cavern with cave drawings. Enaa had read the files and reports herself and by the information she gleaned from them, it seemed that the Armali Council viewed this as a 'possible' huge discovery; the cave drawings apparently surrounded sculpture and that meant a greatly reglious place for the prehistoric asari who made these islands their hunting grounds alongside the wild nead dolphins in ages past.

Jehanren didn't notice her eldest daughter until Enaa rubbed her forehead against the top of her crest, causing the priestess to jump in her seat and rouse her from her reading, realising who had snuck up on her she smiled and allowed Enaa to rest her chin atop her head as she continued reading.

"It is amazing, isn't it?" the matriarch said "Just where our ancestors could reach and what they could do. Very clever putting a religious monument in a watery cavern."

"It could be a hoax, we've never seen the prehistoric tribes placing monuments in such places." Enaa said, trying to sound hopeful, but she just had a feeling that this would be just like the last 'religious site of huge significance' she and her family had been sent to investigate and catelogue by the Armali goverment. All it had turned out ot be was a geological anomaly of clay and dark rock formations. Irasa had been extremely disapointed as it had been her first assignment.

"Such negativities coming from a maiden..."

"... close to becoming a matron, I shall add, as such my mind is much more focused on realities. Fantasies and miracles no longer exist Mother, not like they did in the age of Matriarch Armali." The priestess sighed deeply and stood after her daughter released her from her embrace and turned to look at her. Enaa's faint matron markings were only just starting to appear around her eyes; there were still years before they became the bold patterns that showed she was fully mature.

"I am a Priestess to the Goddess, my dear daughter, and miracles come in all sizes and all manner of shapes, that is something I have learned through all my years. Just believe a little more."

"Perhaps, I hope you are right."

"Just believe a little more." With that final sentence, the matriarch kissed her daughter's forehead, cleared away what she had reading and went outside.

Enaa followed behind her mother and then turned to go towards the large tent that would be where she and a majority of the team would be sleeping. She observed her mother enter Be'vanh's tent to talk with the matron about something she had read about in the texts from the tent she and her daughter had just come from. Enaa kept her eyes on her mother for a bit before she entered the large, simple structure that was to be called home for a few weeks to continue the work entrusted to her by their experienced, if somewhat eccentric, leading Matron.


	6. Ch Four: For the Fallen

I finally got back round to my writing, but I'm still a bit busy so I can't give a certain time frame as to when the next chapter will be up, but not too long I hope.

This chapter ot only puts a bit of a close on Ashley so I can start with the exciting parts of the story but also helps flesh out what happened to the Commander Shepard in this story.

Anyway, here it is, hope you enjoy and please remember to reveiw.

Chapter Four: For The Fallen

After two days of sleeping in the Med-bay, Doctor Chakwas finally allowed the Commander to continue resting in her own quarters now that she was walking again. Her legs were still shaky but Kaidan was always around to make sure she had someone to lean on both literally and metaphorically. She was going to need that support from him in a few days, as she had decided to attend Ashley's memorial service. It was the least she could do for the brave soldier who had become like a sister to her.

It had certainly felt like losing someone that close when she had to make that dreadful decision on Virmire, it was still burning in her memory. She had gone through the arguments of why she should and why she shouldn't so many times it felt like a repeat cycle. The message from Ashley's mother hadn't helped either; but she was certain in the decision she made on Virmire; Kaidan had been with the Salarian teams, if she hadn't gone to help relieve them from the Geth then none of them would have made it offworld.

The One for the Many.

It had been something she had lived by for many years even before joining the military... it still fucking hurt though.

Kaylei took pain, in all its various forms, in her stride. She always had been able to deal with tradegy well for some reason, no matter how painful. Kaylei would deal with the emotion after everything else had settled, after everyone else had healed and after eveything had needed to be done was done; she would then crawl away somewhere quiet, where she would not be disturbed and she would cry... always silently and most times unseen. Again, something she had learnt as a child.

Now Kaylei Shepard was crying.

In the quiet of her quarters the Commander allowed her tears to fall for her fallen warrior. The tears being soaked by the pillow she was hugging to her chest, the silent sobbing causing her still healing ribs and lacerations to begin a dull ache and stabing pains in the flesh of her torso. They hurt like hell, but Kaylei couldn't feel them. Kaylei turned her head to face the many pictures she had diligently pinned and taped to the blukhead beside her bed and which concealed a small, but much appreciated shower. Kaylei's red, watery eyes glanced at the most recent pictures she had pinned there before they had reached Feros. Various members of the Normandy crew were captured as they worked (and played) about the Normandy. Navigator Pressly and several members of his team, Adams with his team and Tali, Joker showing off his growing beard, even a photo of a certain biotic Lieutenant working at the terminal that linked into the life-support systems of the Normandy's sleeper pods. Memorable, all of them, but she wasn't looking to those at this time, her eyes fell onto the printed photos of those that held Gunnery Chief Ashley Willams; one in particular. Although the two photos showing Ashley copying Wrex's almost ritulised streching regime and one where she had caught the chief sleeping soundly at the Mess table, her arms providing a pillow for her head and a near empty bowl of what looked like vegtable stew to her side, would always be amoung those she treasured. But it was one particular picture of Ashley that she had pinned right beside the first photo she had ever taken.

It showed the Gunnery Chief in all her glory. It was at Ashley's regular haunt on the Normandy, the armoury, where she had surrounded herself with guns and various equipment that she taken apart and was in the process of cleaning. When Kaylei had been able to snap this the Chief was facing the camera a partly reconstructed geth assault rifle, belonging to Tali, was held to her right side and a fully cleaned and checked sniper rifle, belonging to Garrus, was resting against her hip left hip. Ashley's hands were covered in gun oil from a rag that had been overused and a large smear of gun oil covered her left cheek on her smiling face where she had brushed a strand of hair from her face. The large grin on Ashley's face extened up to her eyes which had been so full of life at the moment of the camera shot, Ashley had been almost deliriously happy as Shepard had just informed her that the cheif could use the terminal in her quarters to send a real-time message to her sisters and mother; it had been Sarah's birthday.

It was a beatiful photo and had captured the Gunnery Cheif perfectly, that smile was now immortalised, even though the woman was no longer with them. Ashley's usual place at the Normandy's armoury had remained empty, the old Storm III shoutgun she had disesembled to clean before that fateful day on Virmire was still laid out on the table; no one had the heart to clean it.

Kaylei hugged the pillow to her chest tighter, feeling how her ribs and sides were now really starting to hurt her, she tried to calm down before she needed painkillers. Kaylei looked to other photos surrounding the smiling cheif and the smallest of smiles tugged on her lips as she came to a collection of photos showing Bear. '_I haven't cried like this since you, have I?_' Kaylei thought while looking at the picture showing the huge black mongrel with his faveourite tennis ball in his mouth.

Even now, she never understood why Bear had followed her like he had. The day Bear and she first met was like a distant memory, she couldn't even remember what day it was or in what alley or district of London's megatropolis when an eight year old girl woke up one chilly morning to see the biggest dog she had ever seen sitting in front of her makeshift bed of cardboard and old newspaper. The two of them had just stared at eachother for a few seconds before the large animal got to his plate-sized feet, padded over to her and laid down right on top of her and her newspaper blanket. The chill of the morning quickly leaving the young girl's body.

Kaylei had never used a leash on him and she hadn't given him a collar since they had first started travelling out of Britain, Bear had been free to leave her whenever he wanted and in whatever country they had travelled to, but the dog had stuck with her. Through cold winters and colder countries, hot weather and scorching hot countries, hunger, thrist, exhaustion and numerous cities all over the Earth, the stupid mongrel who never listened to any commands like sit or lie down had stuck to her hip like her skin. Kaylei loved that dog, but she would never understand what had made him stay with her like he had.

It had been almost ironic that Bear would die just two years after he and Kaylei stopped their nomadic exsistence when she enrolled into a scheme by the Alliance Military. Offering free education, health care and an apartment at an Alliance compound for the chance to join one of the Alliance's many careers. Kaylei had just started her preliminary training for the millitary when her at-the-time lifelong companion died.

It was at that moment her door opened and Kaidan came in carrying what looked suspiciously like her dress blues, neatly laundered and pressed. But when he saw she was crying he deposited the uniform onto the table in the middle of her quarters and rushed to her. "Kaylei, what's wrong?"

"It's okay, I'm just thinking about Ashley." Kaylei explained, Kaidan looked relieved and he sat down beside her on her bed to look at the pictures on the bulkhead. "I'm glad I had my camera on me when I took that one." she pointed to the smiling chief and was proved correct about that infectious smile when she saw a grin split across Kaidan's face.

"It's beautiful, I prefer that one though," he pointed to the one where Ashley was copying Wrex. "That shotgun is still there." he added sadly.

"Someone will have to sort it out sooner or later, but leave it for now. let it be a little reminder until after the service." Kaylei said, wiping her eyes on the pillow and taking in a sharp intake of air when she pulled at her sides. Kaidan was immediately helping her lie back down to relieve the injuries. "I think I'll need some more meds, I shouldn't have done that."

"You couldn't help it, you were upset, you couldn't just stop crying." Kaidan told her as he reached for the meds Doctor Chakwas had given the Commander when she first returned to her quarters. "Heaven knows I've tried."

"BaaT or Ashley?"

"Numerous times." Kaylei smiled warmly at her lover and took the two pills he gave her along with a mouthful of water to down the two pills.

"What were you doing with my blues?"

"Had them cleaned for Ashley's service, everyone else already has." Kaidan said returning to the uniform he had left on her table and hanging it up in her wardrobe. "I heard Garrus and the others came to see you if they could join the service."

"Yes, I've sent a message to Ashley's mother to see if she'd allow them, I haven't heard back yet, but I hope Ashley sent them some positive feedback about who she was working with."

"I think Ashley's views were the strongest out of the family, or at least that's what it sounded like to me. She told me Lynn has a good volus friend." Kaidan said coming to sit back beside Kaylei.

"Well I hope so." said Kaylei as she felt the pain in her sides begin to lift as Kaidan drew her into him "I think Tali would be would be quite upset and Garrus has already picked out the outfit he is to wear. Full black of course, turian mourning colours are usally dark violets or purples, he came to me to ask what the human mourning colour was." Kaylei relaxed into Kaidan's arms but she turned her vision back to the photos on the bulkhead and the picture of Ashley, tears stung at her eyes again, but this time did not fall. There would be plenty of time for more tears after the service.

_~~~~~~~~~~~~Kaylei and Bear~~~~~~~~~~~~_

_Kaylei was sat upright on her bed dressed in a plain white T-shirt, dark grey bottoms and white running socks ready for when she would do her daily laps around the compound. The television wasn't showing anything she was interested in and the music on her iPod did not appeal to her early in the morning, so the newspaper was providing her something to do while in the form of the cartoon strips and puzzles. As Kaylei sighed loudly, racking her brain for an anwser to the puzzle, a loud groan anwsered in response of her sigh and came from a solid mass at her feet which opened his big brown eyes to look at her with a questioning glance._

_"Sorry Bear, I don't think you'd know the anwser to 'The final destination." Kaylei said. Her old companion just closed his eyes and continued his nap. Kaylei was hopeless at crosswords._

_Areas of Bear's fur had fallen out and he now looked particularly bedraggled (though Kaylei liked to believe it was really from all the stroking the old dog had recieved from the twenty nine other women who lived in the complex), his joints weren't as supple as they used to be and Kaylei had the distinct impression that he had gone blind in his left eye. He was still a humongous creature though and had become something of a mascot for all of the women who were living in the St Albans Alliance compound that she and Bear had called home for almost two years. She used her feet to give the dog a quick stroke behind his ear and along his side when he shifted to allow her to do so._

_Deciding that she'd complete the puzzle later she closed the paper and placed it onto the side table next to her bed, stretching as she got to her feet to begin her day in earnest. The apartment was simple, a single large-enough room which acted as bedroom, living room and dinning room, the kitchenette was a simple setup on the wall which was opposite her bed, just a sink a small fridge freezer and an oven. The complex had a communal laundry area for the inhabitants of the apartments. Her tiny bathroom was the only other room she had and was located near the front door it was only a toilet and sink; like the laundry, the shower facilities were communual, it mirrored what she could expect once she had joined the military proper._

_As Kaylei set about preparing breakfast Bear just watched from her bed, the old dog didn't follow her around the apartment anymore, he was old and she could tell that after a while his joints began to hurt as he walked._

_He didn't run anymore._

_Kaylei made toast for the both of them, two pieces for her with butter and honey, just the way she like it and four pieices for the huge Bear, with only the slightest spread of yeast extract and no butter, just the way he like it. As breakfast was washed down with a few mouthfuls of orange juice from its carton in the fridge and some sloppy tounge-laps of water from a deep dish on the floor near the oven Kaylei existed to the world outside her front door and Bear ambled along behind her. Kaylei and Bear's apartment was on the ground floor so Bear took his usual seat beside one the collumns which supported the stairway to the apartments above so he could watch Kaylei run her daily morning laps around the compound's ground, a simple area of grass which was roughly the size of a netball or basketball court. It was often used by the young women as such like a playground, football, hockey, tennis, badminton and even a few snowball wars had been won and lost on it._

_Kaylei finished her stretching and warm up before standing infront of her old companion and waited. She could almost see him start to smile as he made her wait and his tail was just starting to flick. He knew what she wanted him to do, but the dog seemed to like watching her excitement build, a couple of seconds past and Bear finally let out a booming bark that sounded like an explosion and Kaylei began her paced run around the grass , her first lap of thirty and Bear was always sat beside the column, always beside her._

_The day had gone by ordinarily and with the arrival of eight o' clock in the evening Kaylei and Bear were once more inside their little apartment and with Kaylei's worn old iPod playing the many music scores and tunes quitely around the room. Bear was lying down in his basket beside the television and Kaylei was folding away the washed and dried articles of clothing she and Bear had taken down to the laundry, one of which had been the blanket which lined the large dog basket and which was now regathering dog smell as she had made sure it was the first thing back in its place once their chores were finished. Dinner had gone by quickly and had been a simple meal of fish cakes, peas and carrots, with a little mashed potato. Bear had his peas and carrots mixed with his mash potato but his fish cakes were left whole so he could chew them._

_He had never eaten 'proper' dog food._

_"Hey! I didn't know I kept this." Kaylei said to herself as she pulled out her old patched coat from the back of her wardrobe. It had been a tight fit on her at the age of ten, but had kept out the cold; there was no way it was going to fit her now. Numerous stitching and replacement of fabric gave it a very Frankenstien appearance, nessceity dictated she had to repair it while she had Bear were travellers, but it was by no means the prettiest article of clothing she had ever owned. With a half laugh at some of the more pleasant memories it brought back she hung it back in the wardrobe and continued folding away the laundry in the wash basket at her feet. Bear just dozed and the music kept on playing._

_By the time Kaylei finished her chores and tidying her little apartment it was late and she was starting to get tired. Taking her iPod off its stand she shut it down before tucking it away under her bed with the cheap laptop she had bought after moving in to the apartment and after wiping down the surfaces of the kitchenette where some of the honey from this morning's toast had dripped from the knife, as well as cleaning the knifes she had used. After her quick clean, throughout which Bear was quiet, she began to prepare for bed. Brushing her teeth and changing into a nightshirt that was a couple of sizes too large for her. Finally, the day was done and Kaylei pulled back the covers of her bed, picking up the newspaper she had left on her side table earlier that day as she laid down, she would complete some of the other puzzles and try to decipher the crossword which still had her racking her brain, trying to find the anwser._

_She was once more forced to put the paper back on her side table as no anwsers came to mind and it was late; she had enough troubles getting to sleep as it was. Before she could turn off the lamp on the same little table as her paper, Bear picked himself up onto his feet and approached the bed, jumping clumsily up with the young woman and laying down beside her._

_He hadn't done that since before they came to live here._

_Kaylei began to wonder if her old friend was getting sick. "Hey Boy, what's wrong?" she asked, as if he could anwser her. Bear just laid his huge head across her shoulder and sighed, relaxing deeper into the bed sheet he was laying on top of. Kaylei felt herself smile and wrapped her arms around the black animal; just like she had all those years ago when a younger Bear had kept her warm from the chill of a cold morning in some new city or settlement. "I'll see you in the morning then. Good night." With that, Kaylei turned off the lamp and cuddled deeper into Bear's fur._

_His behavior still worried her, but somehow she was able to find sleep somewhere within Teddy Bear's thick coat of fur._

_The rain that the weatherman had said to expect was pounding on her window when she woke up, hitting the pane of glass so hard it sounded like hail. Kaylei's groggy head lifted from her pillow slightly to watch as the raindrops cascaded down the glass creating the illusion of a flowing river down the pane of glass, but Kaylei still let her head fall back to the pillow and was prepared to try and catch some more sleep. "G'morning Bear." She waited for his groaned reply ... ... but she heard nothing. Her duel coloured eyes opened in confusion. Bear was still lying beside her, his huge head had moved from her shoulder to the blanket beside it sometime during the night, and he lay perfectly still. "Bear?" Kaylei said, trying rouse the dog from his sleep._

_He didn't respond._

_She sat up and leaned over the large animal to try and see what was wrong with him. When Kaylei sent a hand through his fur, and when she realised he wasn't breathing, Kaylei could feel heart stop, her mind's thought processes come to a crashing halt and every other organ in her body just seemed to dissappear. "Bear?" she shook him, even though she knew._

_He was colder than he should have been._

_Kaylei didn't realise she had started to cry, until she felt the sting of the tears behind her eyes. "Bear?!"_

_Bear's eyes didn't open. Kaylei buried her face in his fur and allowed the strands to soak her tears as her mind finally caught up with the terible truth that her old companion had past away during his sleep._

_For the first time, Kaylei Shepard cried, properly cried. Her tears weren't silent, they were for her little apartment and the rain hammering against her window to hear._

_She had been woken by the rain at quarter to seven on a dreary Thursday morning and would not be able to telephone for a call vet until gone ten._

_Bear's love worn heart could no longer take the strain of his massive body and he suffered a heart attack during the night, he felt no pain, and was secure in the arms of his human as he reached his Final Destination._

_~~~~~~~~~~~~Kaylei and Bear~~~~~~~~~~~~_

The week had gone by like a gunshot, before Kaylei knew it she was dressing in her dress blues fiddling with the black armband situated over her left sleve. Although the massive cuts she recieved from Saren's husk were still sore and she still needed painkillers for the pain they were healed to an extent that Doctor Chakwas was happy to allow the Comander to attend Ashley's service. She was walking unaided and regaining her strength quickly, her mind set on the fate of the galaxy if she didn't start getting back into the saddle of command and the waste it would be of Ashley's sacrafice; she would never allow that to happen.

Kaylei rather liked the dress blues; she just didn't like the reason she wore it now. The midnight blue coat displayed her medals and ribbons, including her Star of Terra, and the overall effect of the smart uniform made the Commander look exceptionally regal and proud. Her black shoes were polished to such a high shine that they reflected light as she walked and the ornemental sword hung beside her left leg. Kaylei checked herself over, giving the black armband one final check, to make sure she was walking properly as her injuries had been effecting her stance. Content with her appearence she left her quarters and was met by the Normandy officers, all in their own dress and their black armbands.

"Everything's prepared, Ma'am, we're all ready." Lieutenant Pressly said

"What about the Normandy?" Kaylei asled

"A handful of crew volunteered to stay behind. They won't let anyone on or off the ship without your authorization, Ma'am."

"Good, I'm glad you're all coming. We should go." The officers parted to allow the Commander to pass and then began to follow, Doctor Chakwas and Lieutenant Alenko coming up beside the Commander in case her sides began to present differculties to her.

The Amerterasu colony port was somewhat small but by a miracle was just able to fit the Normandy, the ship had drawn a small crowd of dock workers but as Kaylei and the officers came to stand on the ports concrete ground they were not drawn to the crowd of awestruck civilians. Apart from the five individuals who had volunteered to stay with the Normandy the entire crew was lined up in front of the port station, all in their best wear and sombre faces for the day.

Garrus was wearing his black civilian wear and had painted his manables with black face paint as oppoased to the purple he would've coloured them with if attending a turian funeral.

Tali was stood with members of the engineering team and the hood that usually covered her helmet had been temperaily replaced with a black hood which covered her shoulders and upper arms, it was tied and held secure by a simple knot which rested over the young quarian's chest. Under the new shawl Tali was wearing her original Hydra suit she had first met the Commander in as it was the darkest suit in her pocession.

Liara wore a floor length black dress and coat which suited her graceful asari features and movements.

Wrex was dressed in his Colossus armour, but that was the krogan way. A black armband could be seen gracing his left wrist and he was not carrying his weapon's rack. The strange necklace was free from his armor and still no one had been able to wrest anything from the kroagan as to what it was; he hadn't been wearing it when he first joined them.

When the crew saw their Commander approach what small chatter they had been talking was silenced and they saluted, it was quickly returned to them by Shepard. Behind the gathered soldiers Kaylei saw a collection of black army vehicles which they would be using to reach the ground where Ashley's service was going to take place.

Rain had been forecast for today but so far the weather was holding, the dark clouds overhead were consistent with the weather reports that there would be rain eventually. It was appropriate for the mood of the gathered crowd which had congregated around the William's plot at a local burial site near the colony settlement the Williams had taken resisdence. Ashley's cross, which had an Alliance flag draped over it and billowed in a slight breeze, took the plot beside her father's grave.

Although the Commander wasn't sure what side of the argument she took when it came to life after death she knew Ashley was a beleiver and she imagined daughter and father had alot to catch up on.

Kaylei was stood beside Ashley mother, Ann, at the front of the mourners and the sisters were stood to their mother's other side, drying eachothers tears and taking strength from the others. The Commander gave Ann what little comfort she could give as the distraught mother would occasinally lean onto her. The few family friends they had invited where gathered closely around them but were swamped by the Normandy crew. Kaidan and Chakwas were behind the Commander, Liara stood with them and Tali was close by as well. Garrus and Wrex were stood with Joker; the pilot's face showed nothing of the pain and discomfort he must have been in with the amount of time he had been standing.

Everyone was either quiet, or crying and for now Kaylei was able to hold her tears. The priest had finished with what he needed to say and turned his attention to the Commander, who was going to give the closing words to the service. Ann had her speech at the beginning, she knew she wouldn't be able to hold back the tears for the end.

Kaylei walked forwards and took the place the priest had in front of the congregation and took a second to compose herself before speaking.

"To say Ashley left an impression upon me, would be to insult a woman I had come to regard as one of my closeset friends and one of the best soldiers to come into my command for a long time. I am sure that each of my crew have at least one fond memory of _our _Gunnery Chief. A good many of you will not forget a certain banana and several tubes of gun lubricant." Kaylei paused as the gathering let out several light laughs, smiles that reached watering eyes and even on the remaining Williams, apparently Ashley's little 'boredom experiments' weren't confined to the Normandy. "But with the passing of a good friend I feel somewhat numb, I feel like I should be saying more, but I can't find the words. At least, not the ones I should be saying. Ashley once told me that she was not a words person, that others said what she needed to say better than she could and I think that for many people that's the case, me included." Shepard explained, she could feel a stinging start behind her eyes, but held herself in check. "I turn to the words of a fellow soldier, Laurence Binyon fought in one of the most tragic and terrible eras of human history, the First World War. This particular poem, For the Fallen, was once common to be heard at Remembrance Day, but sadly has fallen by the wayside somewhat in favour of more modern poems. So as Ashley once again meets her father and grandfather, her fellow comrades, I am sure that Mr. Binyon won't mind me using his words for our valued friends, our valued soldiers, and most importantly, our valued sister."

"With proud thanks giving, a mother for her children,

Earth mourns for her dead across the stars.

Flesh of her flesh they were, spirit of her spirit,

Fallen in the cause of the free.

Solemn the drums thrill; Death august and royal

Sings sorrow up into immortal spheres,

There is music in the midst of desolation

And a glory that shines upon out tears.

They went with songs to the battle, they were young,

Straight of limb, true of eye, steady and aglow.

They were staunch to the end and against odds uncounted;

They fell with their faces to the foe.

They shall not grow old, as we that are left grow old;

Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.

At the going down of the sun and in the morning

We will remember them. We will remember her.

They mingle not with their laughing comrades again;

They sit no more at familar tables of home;

They have no lot in our labour of the day-time;

They sleep beyond Sol's glow.

But where our desires are and our hopes profound,

Felt as a well-spring that is hidden from sight,

To the innermost heart of their own land they are known

As the stars are known to the Night.

As the stars that shall be bright when we are dust,

Moving in marches upon the heavenly plain;

As the stars that are starry in the time of our darkness,

To the end, to the end, she'll remain."

The crowd was silent as they cleared the tears from their faces and comforted those to their sides and remained silent as Shepard took the flag from Ashley's cross, folded it and walked towards Ann. The oldest Williams took a step towards the Commander that her daughter had told them so much about in her messages to them. As the Commander handed her the Alliance flag Ann placed her arms around the woman who had made such an impact on her oldest child and drew the woman into a deep embrace.

"Thank you, Commander." Ann said "Thank you so much."

Kaylei didn't respond, but wrapped her free arm around Ann's shoulders, allowing the woman to take the flag as she withdrew from the quick, but warm and soothing embrace.

Slowly, the gathering began to part, the Normandy crew spreading out somewhat across the cemetary while the invited friends said their goodbyes to the family. Kaylei was left near the cross which now stood as a reminder to their fallen comrade. She felt someone come up next to her and Kaylei turned to see Sarah was beside her. When the Normandy crew had arrived at the cemetary the Williams had been quick to greet them, but while Ann, Lyne and Abbey had been welcoming to the congregation, even the non-humans; Sarah had stayed clear of the Commander; and she hadn't seen the young girl cry, not once.

Sarah looked up at the Commander and Kaylei wasn't sure how to take the look in the girl's eyes, she coudn't gauge what it was, anger, great sadness... she wasn't sure.

She was completely off-guard when the young woman slapped her so hard she nearly toppled over; the sound of the smack alerting those who were still behind. When Kaylei was able to right herself she turned back to the young woman; and simply stared back at the young girl, now understanding what was wrong; she needed someone to blame.

After a moment, a time in which no one dared move, unbelieving of what had just happened, Sarah's composure changed. Her face began to crack; her real emotions showing through and Kaylei just waited for the girl to do whatever she felt she needed to do. Tears formed in the younger woman's eyes and she was shaking, trying to hide her sobs, but Kaylei could see and still she just stood before Sarah and waited.

Unable to hold back her tears any longer, Sarah threw herself at the Commandr and latched her arms around her, crying into the older woman's uniform. Sarah's arms were wrapped tightly around Shepard's torso, while her head was buried into Kaylei's left shoulder with the still sore bullet wound; she could feel something warm trickling down her sides and hoped it wasn't noticable on her uniform. But it wasn't from pain she was crying.

Standing beside a cross bearing the name of a woman Kaylei considered the sister she never had, the Commander shared her tears with the one other who felt Ashley's absence; her own tears soaking into Sarah's hair.

Observing from a great distance and in ways no other thing could hope to understand. It watched, and It wept. It didn't understand why. After billions of generations It thought It would be able to handle the rush of thoughts. Perhaps because It was waking and was able to focus, when It began to focus It felt emotion.

Emotion was what started eveything.

Already Ashley Williams' emotions had run It, her love for her family and her affection to Shepard. Throguh this It felt what it was to _be_ Ashley Williams. It had learned sadness was not a favourite emotion of any. Sadness was what Shepard and the young Williams was feeling.

_Shepard, young Williams, do not feel this sadness, it makes no sense. Ashley does not worry about you anymore._

But still, It wept. And It could not understand why.


End file.
